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Sunday, March 9, 2008
SIX-RUN FIRST LIFTS BASEBALL OVER OLD WESTBURY, 8-1
In first start, James Kukucka credited with first career pitching victory
YAPHANK, N.Y. -- Junior righty James Kukucka (Vernon) won his first game in his first career start and Shawn Gilblair (Windham) and Trey Bongiovanni (Meriden) hit first-inning home runs when the Eastern Connecticut State University baseball team dumped SUNY College at Old Westbury, 8-1, Sunday afternoon at the Baseball Heaven complex.
AT RIGHT: Trey Bongiovanni (23) and Shawn Gilblair (29) had an opportunity to try out their 2008 home run trots in the first inning of Sunday's win.
The game was the final turneup for Eastern (2-1) before it plays nine games in nine days beginning Friday in California. The Warriors have won their last two after opening the season by losing to 2007 national champion Kean University eight days ago. Old Westbury (0-7) was playing its first game since returning from a winless Southern trip against North Carolina Wesleyan and Frostburg State University.
Kukucka (1-0), who was staked to a 6-0 lead before taking the mound, did not allow an earned run over his career-high five-inning sting . He pitched four scoreless innings after giving up an unearned run in the first on an error, double and two ground balls. He struck out two and hit a batter, but issued no walks in evening his career record at 1-1.
AT LEFT: James Kukucka
The first four batters in the Eastern lineup had hits and came around to score runs against Old Westbury starter Thomas Butler (0-3), who did not survive the inning. Last year’s NCAA Division III Player-of-the-Year as a sophomore designated hitter, Gilblair hit a three-run home run to give Easten a quick 3-0 lead. A senior third baseman, Bongiovanni later added a two-out, two-run shot as the No. 8 hitter in the lineup that chased Butler, who was charged with six earned runs on six hits in two-third of an inning.
Batting second in the order, senior second baseman Zack Thomas (East Haddam) reached base four times. He doubled in the first run of the game and scored in the first, walked to lead off the the second, singled, stole a base and scored in the fifth, and drove in the final run of the game with a two-out single in the sixth.
Batting leadoff, senior centerfielder Ismael Bolorin (Manchester) scored on two of Thomas’ hits, while junior first baseman Tristan Hobbes (Utica, NY) had two hits to move to within six of his 100th career hit. In his first career start, junior rightfielder Andrew Smiley (North Kingstown, RI), singled and scored ahead of Bongiovanni’s home run in the first.
The second of four Eastern pitchers, junior righty Jimmy Jagodzinski (Greenwich) gave up one hit in two innings after replacing Kukucka to start the sixth. Freshman righty Jim Schult (Wappingers Falls, NY) also allowed one hit in pitching a scoreless eighth in his collegiate pitching debut, and first-year sophomore righty Chris Wojick (Uncasville) closed out the win with a scoreless ninth.
Eastern faces Rutgers-Camden Friday at 2 p.m. ET at Claremont, Calif.
Eastern Conn. 8, SUNY College at Old Westbury 1
Eastern Conn. (2-1) 600 011 000 -- 8 13 2
Old Westbury (0-7) 100 000 000 -- 1 7 1
James Kukucka (1-0), Jimmy Jagodzinski (6), Jim Schult (8), Chris Wojick (9), and Andrew Magliola, Rob Chmiel (8). Thomas Butler (0-3), George Pagan (1), Robert Whitenack (7), George Hiraldo (8), Dan Fordyce (9) and Steve Henriquez. 2B-Zack Thomas (E), Rob Blanco, Emmanuel Mateo, Kevin Reynolds, Joe Mazzarese (O). HR-Shawn Gilblair (1), Trey Bongiovanni (1) (E).
