Tigermedia - CUNY Athletic Conference: Men's Community College Baseball Finals: Queensborough vs. Kingsborough CC (2017)
CUNY Athletic Conference: Men's Community College Baseball Finals: Queensborough vs. Kingsborough CC (2017)
Date: May 1st, 2017
Duration:
2h:47m:51s
Summary provided by CUNY Athletics.
The 2017 CUNYAC/MCU Community College Baseball Championship featured a matchup of the top two seeds. The Kingsborough Wave would come out victorious in this one, winning by a score of 5-2 over the Queensborough Tigers to win their third CUNYAC Community College Baseball Championship title in four years.
In the top of the first inning, Kingsborough manufactured three runs, taking advantage of a rough first inning from Tigers starting pitcher Chris Dixon. Lead off hitter Steven Catuogno reached on base safely with a single. Matthew Palmieri followed with a double, putting Kingsborough in the drivers seat early in the ballgame.
Things would continue to get worse for Queensborough starter Chris Dixon as he would hit the number three hitter Andrew Nathan with a fastball and get called for a balk with the bases loaded to give the Wave a 1-0 lead. Dixon would strike out clean up hitter Nathaniel Cruz looking for the first out of the inning. The next batter Vincent Finizio would groundout to the second basemen for the second out, driving in Palmieri to make it 2-0. Anthony Vella would then make it 3-0 with an RBI single to right field. Dixon would get out of trouble by getting John Brunetti to groundout for the final out of the inning. Kingsborough's early strike helped give them the boost they needed all night.
Kingsborough starting pitcher Alipio Tiburcio praised his teammates’ contributions in the 1st inning, quoting, “Having a 3-0 lead before throwing my first pitch definitely was a huge help. My teammates were able to set the tone early for me and it was just my job to focus on getting batters out, one at-bat at a time.”
Matthew Palmieri led off the Top of the third with a triple deep down the left field line. Andrew Nathan would drive Palmieri in with an infield groundout to increase the Wave’s lead to 4-0.
Kingsborough’s starting pitcher Alipio Tiburcio had a tremendous start to his night on the mound, not allowing a hit until Jesse Iacovetta reached base safely on a drag bunt down the third base line with 1 out in the bottom of the 5th inning.
The Queensborough Tigers tried to get things rolling in the bottom of the seventh inning, starting the inning with two straight hits from Nick Zuvic and Andes Perez. However, Tiburcio would get David Lim to hit a grounder to the shortstop Andrew Nathan for an easy double play. With 2 outs in the bottom of the seventh inning, Queensborough’s designated hitter Jeremy Molina hit a deep line drive over the right fielder’s head for a triple, scoring Zuvic, for Queensborough’s first run of the game. Ringo Rodriguez would pop out to the shortstop Nathan to end the inning, stranding Molina on third base.
Kingsborough wouldn’t stop putting the pressure on the Tigers in the top of the 8th inning. Three consecutive hits from Vincent Finizio, Anthony Vella, and John Brunetti would load the bases for the Wave with no one out. DeVita would walk with the bases loaded to make the score 5-1 in favor of the Wave, concluding Tiger starter Chris Dixon’s night. Tiger’s reliever Matthew Triebel would get Queensborough out of trobule, forcing two groundballs, the latter of the two ending the inning with a 1-2-3 double play.
Tiburcio would come in to start the bottom of the ninth for the Wave. He would walk the first batter Brandon Bautista to bring up Nick Zuvic. Zuvic would make the first out of the inning, flying out to the centerfielder John Brunetti. Andres Perez almost ended the game with a double play but was able to beat out the throw to first base from shortstop Andrew Nathan.
David Lim would step up to the batters box with one out left in the game. Lim would force a full count on Tiburcio and walk on an 8 pitch at-bat. Jeremy Molina followed after Lim and with two men on base, Tiburcio would walk the bases loaded, bringing the tying run to the plate.
Kingsborough manager Jimmy Ryan would have no choice but to pull Tiburcio from the ball game with two outs and the bases loaded with Ringo Rodriguez due up to bat. Ryan would call on his designated hitter Matthew Palmieri to register the crucial one out save.
However, Palmieri walked Rodriguez in five pitches to make it a 5-2 ballgame. The next batter would be pinch hitter Joe Navas, replacing starting third baseman Shawn Charles. With a 2 balls and 2 strikes count, Palmieri would get Navas to look at strike three to end the ball game. Palmieri and his teammates would meet at the ptichers mound in a celebratory frenzy.
Matthew Palmieri was named the 2017 CUNYAC Community College Most Valuable Player, finishing with the save and three hits in tonight’s contest, only needing a home run to complete the cycle.
Palmieri was optimistic about the team’s future, quoting “Winning the championship game tonight for the school’s third time in four seasons definitely has a lot of meaning. We feel like this Kingsborough team is what some people would call a dynasty. Our manager (Jimmy Ryan) and the rest of the coaches get us players in shape and ready to go every year, and results like tonight’s championship win proves that”.