Baseball splits a pair against Medaille on day one of RussMatt Tournament

Sanford, FL—After nearly a two-week hiatus, the MCLA Baseball team finally took to the diamond again splitting a doubleheader tonight against Medaille University in the RussMatt Tournament in Sanford, Florida. The Trailblazers took game one 20-8 but fell in the nightcap 11-5. MCLA now sits at 3-1 while the Mavericks move to 2-7.

Game One         MCLA 20    Medaille 8

Down 4-0 after an inning and a half, MCLA's Austin Rachiele would trim the Medaille lead to one after a three-run homer. Two batters later, a Randy Adams solo shot would even the game at 4-4.

The Mavs briefly reclaimed the lead in the top of the 3^rd after an Ean Porkorski solo home run. However, the Trailblazerswould erupt for ten runs in the bottom of the 4^th which was capped off by a Clarence Givhans grand slam to make it 14-5.

Medaille would score a pair of runs in the top of the 5^th but MCLA would tack on six more in the bottom half to put the game out of reach.

Givhans paced MCLA going 2-for-4 with seven RBI's. Rachiele would finish 2-for-2 with four RBI's. MCLA would finish with just 9 hits but took advantage of eleven Maverick walks and 8 hit batsmen.

Brian Rosario would pitch 4 innings to earn the win for the Trailblazers and improve to 2-0.

Game Two         Medaille 11    MCLA 5

Noel Media's single in the top of the 1^st would drive in Austin Rachiele to give MCLA an early 1-0 lead in game two.

In the bottom of the 3^rd an Aaron Huddleson two-out, 3-run double would give Medaile a 3-1 lead. Micheal Ciardello would drive in Huddleson on the next at bat to make it 4-1 after three.

The Mavs bats would stay hot as Nolan Pridmore's 3-run blast in the bottom of the 4^th made it 7-1.

After back-to-back base hits by MCLA's Brady Hamel and Justin Hernandez, the Trailblazers would score 3 runs in the top of the 5^th to cut the lead to 7-4. Medaille would answer however with three more runs of their own in the bottom half and add another in the 6^th.  

Clarence Givhans would homer in the top of the 7^th but the Mavs would walk away with the split, taking game two 11-5.

Nate Bova would earn the win for Medaille evening his record at 1-1. Jayden Palumbo would allow 5 earned runs on six hits in 4 innings pitched falling to 0-1.

Both teams will be back in action tomorrow as Medaille takes on Coby-Sawyer and MCLA battles Maine-Farmington. Both matchups are double-headers.