New Paltz, NY — The State University of New York New Paltz won its sixth-straight game following a 14-4 victory over St. Joseph's-Brooklyn Wednesday at Loren Campbell Field.
 
Scott Scheppy earned the start for the Hawks and pitched two innings, giving up three hits, a walk and one earned run with two strikeouts. He settled in after allowing one across to start the first on a balk but got out of the inning on a strikeout looking to strand runners in scoring position. His team backed him though in the bottom of the frame, as Anthony Pericolosi, fresh off a SUNYAC and D3Baseball Player of the Week recognition, tied the game at ones with some sly base running as he got in a pickle from third base and home, racing to the plate to beat the throw and knot the score.
 
Scheppy went back to work in the second and again got out of trouble in the second, stranding runners at second and third with back-to-back pop-ups to hold the score going into the bottom half. Ryan Muskopf nearly saw his first home run of the season, turning on a ball that sailed toward the warning track, but the Bears left fielder took a good angle and made the catch along the fence for the out, but the long fly ball managed to move Fabian Apicella over from second to third. Matt Sarni came through with a hard-hit liner back at the pitcher, which hit of his knee with St. Joe's second baseman unable to make a play at first. Sarni earned the RBI single to push his team ahead and the Bears needed to make a pitching change due to the injury.
 
Nico Batkay also just missed a home run in the inning, but this time the Bears' right fielder was there to make a nice catch on a ball tailing away for the final out of the inning.  
Michael Ascanio was robbed of a hit as well in the third, as St. Joe's made a nice play at short on a hard-hit grounder able to throw out Ascanio at first, but the play managed to move Tommy Kreider over into scoring position. Kreider eventually crossed home on a rip to shallow center by Apicella. The Bears struggled throwing pitches in the zone and a pair of walks allowed SUNY New Paltz to push the lead to 4-1.

The Hawks added on in the top of the fifth. Batkay led off with a base hit to the right side before Pericolosi continued his hot streak, tripling to right center to push Batkay across. Kreider kept the inning going, as a sacrifice fly brought Pericolosi home with SUNY New Paltz adding two more as Alex Ouellette scored on a wild pitch before Ascanio's double platted Kreider to extend the advantage at 9-1.
 
The Bears gained some life in the top of the eighth. With the bases loaded St. Joe's hit a blooper to shallow left with Muskapf attempting to make a sliding catch on the play, but the ball got behind him. The throw into Kreider at second skipped off the dirt leading to two more to score and allowing the Bears to cut into the deficit at 9-4.
 
SUNY New Paltz answered in the bottom of the inning to put a quick end to the game without a ninth. Apicella and Muskopf both walked in the opening two at-bats before Ryan Mackle hit Apicella in a batter later on an RBI single. Batkay followed with an RBI base hit and Kreider added on following an Ouellette walk to score Batkay and fatten the lead to 13-4. Ristano then sealed the win with a bases loaded walk, finalizing the 14-4 eight-inning score.
 
Batkay led the team offensively, going 3-for-5 with two runs and one RBI. Kreider followed, going 2-for-3 with three runs, two RBI and two walks to go along with a career-high three stolen bases as he became the program's all-time stolen base leader in the process. Apicella finished 2-for-3 with two runs, an RBI and two walks while Ristano hit 2-for-4 with a run, two RBI and a walk.
 
Connor Catania pitched two innings, allowing three hits with four strikeouts. Danny DiEdwards, Jason Wall, Xavier Zykoff and Jeff Lundstedt closed out the last four innings and allowed just three hits with seven strikeouts.
 
SUNY New Paltz improved to 11-6 overall and hope to build on its winning streak and perfect 3-0 SUNYAC mark this weekend, as it hits the road to face SUNY Cortland for a three-game series starting Friday at 3 p.m.
 
 

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