CUNY Championship Game: Men's Baseball: Queensborough vs. BMCC (5/7/12)
Date: May 7th, 2012
Duration:
3h:33m:42s
The Queensborough Tigers captured their 14th CUNY Championship with a 9-5 victory over the BMCC Panthers. It was the Tigers first CUNY Title since 2010, and the first under Head Coach Roger Mischel.
BMCC jumped out to a 1-0 lead in the first, as Luis Hiraldo's single off Tiger starter Anthony Graziano scored Jason Javier. The Tigers didn't waste time getting even. Bobby McDowell led off with a single, stole second, advanced to third on a wild pitch and eventually scored on an error to tie the game at one.
QCC would take the lead in the bottom of the second. With Rodney Rosario on second, Gabriel Maldonado hit a routine ground ball to third base, but Ariel Torres' throw was off, scoring Rosario and giving the Tigers a 2-1 lead. After a walk to Scott Recinos worked a walk, McDowell stunned BMCC and pitcher Shane Cafaro, with hit a three-run home run over the left field wall, to give QCC a 5-1 lead. The Tigers scored four runs in the second on one hit, but Graziano would have trouble making it hold up.
Graziano would only record one more out, and gave up four runs in the third, and was removed after Torres tied the game with a two-run single. Coach Mischel went to the bullpen and called on James Scagnelli to get out of trouble.
Scagnelli pitched in and out of trouble, giving up a hit to the first man he faced, but then getting out of the inning with back-to-back strikeouts. In the fourth, Scagnelli allowed a leadoff triple, but escaped without the run scoring. He pulled another Houdini in the fifth inning, walking the first two batters, and then retiring the next three.
In the fifth, the Tigers bats gave Scagnelli the offense he needed. QCC had left the bases loaded in the third and fourth innings, and weren't about to do it again. Now facing Genry Valera, who had replaced Cafaro, Jeinson Espinosa singled up the middle, scoring Rosario and Recinos, giving the Tigers a 7-5 lead. Yineton Ramirez took over for Valera, but Lebro Burnette extended the Tiger lead with a single to right field. Mike Nardozzi came around to score, and when right fielder Garison Polius air-mailed his throw, Espinosa came in to score.
The Tigers led 9-5, and this time BMCC would not come back. Scagnelli struck out two more Panthers in the sixth before running into minor trouble in the seventh. With Stanley De La Cruz on second, Polius singled to right field. De La Cruz tried to score, but right fielder Rodney Rosario quicky got the ball back in to the infield, and cut off man Mike Nardozzi relayed it to catcher Louis Lambros who applied the tag to De La Cruz. After Scagnelli struck out two more in the eight, it was time to put BMCC away.
With two outs in the ninth inning, De La Cruz offered at Scagnelli's 1-1 pitch and flew out to Rosario who caught the final out, to give Queensborough the victory.
James Scagnelli was named game MVP pitching 6.2 innings of scoreless relief, and dominating the overwhelmed Panthers with 10 strikeouts.
Game summary written by QCC student David Russell.