This past Sunday, Stevens Men’s Baseball swept The City College of New York in a season-opening doubleheader.
Highlighting across both games, senior Christian Kreiser hit a home run while junior Eli Somers had two hits, two runs, two runs scored, and an RBI in game two. Stevens gave up just seven hits between both matches. Sophomore Erik Sibbach (1-0) and senior Jacob Buurman (1-0) each picked up their first victories of the season. Sibbach and sophomore William Sotiropoulos, the two starting pitchers for the Ducks, combined to throw 12 strikeouts.
To open Game 1, the Ducks shut out the Beavers 6-0 in the first game of the afternoon. No runs were tallied on the board until Kreiser hit a home run off a pitching change in the fourth inning. The Ducks then picked up three base runners due to walks and scored another run off the bat of first-year Chip Krese, the first RBI of his career, to put the Ducks up 2-0.
Stevens added three more runs in the fifth inning. With the first two batters out, Kreiser picked up another hit, as he singled to center. Senior Frank Tonina then reached on an error, which put Kreiser on third. Senior Jack Irby was up next, and he delivered a single down the right side to advance both runners, with Kreiser scoring on the play. Graduate student Michael Reyes would reach on an error in the next Duck at-bat, which allowed Tonina to score and give Stevens a 5-0 lead.
The Ducks added another run in the sixth inning as junior Colby Ching was walked and then advanced to second on a wild pitch. Sophomore Dylan Fishbough would bring in Ching a few batters later as he doubled down the left field side.
In the second game of the afternoon, neither team was able to score for the first three innings, but the Ducks broke through in the fourth inning. Somers singled to open the inning, and then sophomore Liam Houghton doubled to bring home Somers. Houghton advanced to third on a passed ball, and was brought home by a single from senior Jack Stafford.
With the bases later loaded, Fishbough earned an RBI as he was hit by a pitch, tallying the Ducks up 3-0 after the fourth inning. Soon after, in the fifth inning, the Ducks would again record a bases-loaded walk drawn by junior Liam DeRubertis. Stevens clinched the game in the sixth inning as they put six runs past the Beavers, making it 9-1.
The Ducks open up the season 2-0 for the fourth straight year. With the two victories, Stevens improves to 13-1 all-time against CCNY. Baseball returns to the field next weekend for a three-game set with William Patterson. The first game will be on Saturday, February 17, in Wayne, NJ, at noon, and then the two teams will meet twice on Sunday, February 18, at 11 a.m. and 1:30 p.m. at Dobbelaar Baseball Field at the DeBaun Athletic Complex.
