April 25, 2012

Final Stats

The Siena baseball team lost its fourth straight game Wednesday night, falling 6-4 to visiting Holy Cross. The Saints made things very interesting in their final at bat, scoring twice before John Rooney flied to left with the bases loaded to end the game.

The Saints (13-29) lost their seventh straight home game after winning three of their first four contests at Siena Field.

Holy Cross (27-18) took control of the game with three runs in the second. Brandon Cipolla singled home the game's first run, and then the Crusaders tacked on two more on a key throwing error.

The Saints had four errors on the afternoon, leading to four unearned runs.

Larry Balkwill's RBI single in the fourth cut the lead to 3-1, but Holy Cross struck for two runs in the fifth on RBI singles by Patrick Puentes and Stephen Wadsworth, pushing the lead to four runs.

The teams then traded runs, with Dan Sullivan singling home the Saints' second run in the fifth, and Puentes' collecting an RBI on a grounder to first in the seventh.

Siena's rally in the ninth started with a leadoff walk to Balkwill. Pinch hitter Mike Williams singled with one out, and Tyler Bell drove home a run with an opposite field single with two outs. The Saints closed within two runs on a wild pitch, moving the tying run to second, and Vincent Citro worked a walk to load the bases for Rooney - one of the top hitters on the team. After a brief conference, Holy Cross reliever John Colella got Ronney to fly out on the first pitch of the at bat to end the game.

George Perrotta picked up the victory in his first appearance of the season for Holy Cross, working the first five innings and allowing just four hits and two runs.

Siena got scoreless innings from starter Dan Pendleton, and relievers Matt Quintana and Neil Fryer.

The Saints look to get back in the win column this weekend when they host Niagara in a three-game MAAC series.