Photo: St. Bonaventure Athletics
BY RYAN LOMBARDI, CONTRIBUTING WRITER
The Bonnies traveled to Middle Tennessee Friday afternoon for a three-game series against the Blue Raiders. Redshirt junior Chance Moore started on the mound for Bonaventure in Game 1.
The Bonnies went down early after junior shortstop Clay Badylak and sophomore secondbaseman Cale Vinson hit sac flies, giving Middle Tennessee a 2-0 lead into the fifth inning. The Blue Raiders tacked on another run when senior thirdbaseman Gabe Jennings hit a solo homerun to put them up 3-0.
The Blue Raiders led 6-1 heading into the ninth. Redshirt senior rightfielder Adam Rankie hit a two-run double and junior leftfielder Robert Mannino knocked an RBI single to cut the lead down to two.
Although the Bonnies fought back, it would be too much to recover from. Middle Tennessee took game one, 6-4.
Junior right-handed pitcher James Sells got the win on the mound for the Blue Raiders. Sells went six innings, allowing only one hit and one earned run.
In game two, Bonnies sophomore ace Michael Salina took the rubber in his third start of the season. Middle Tennessee quickly jumped to a 2-0 lead after totaling two runs in the first.
Salina recovered, proceeding to throw five innings of shutout baseball. After six innings, he gave up only two runs and struck out six batters.
The Bonaventure offense answered in the top half of the fourth with a four-run inning.
The Brown and White held the lead for the rest of the game.
The Bonnies dominated on both sides of the ball in game two with an offensive explosion of 12 runs. Graduate first baseman Jackson DeJohn tallied three hits along with three RBIs. Freshman catcher Antonio Cordeiro went 2-3 with two walks and two RBIs. Rankie also collected two hits in the contest.
The Bonnies dropped the rubber match of the series Sunday afternoon, 8-3.
Sophomore pitcher Noah Czajkowski allowed five runs in the first inning and Bonaventure didn’t recover. Junior pitcher Kade Walker had an impressive outing in relief, allowing only two hits and two unearned runs while striking out 8 batters. Redshirt senior centerfield Paul Vossen captured three hits in the game. Cordeiro had another multi-hit game with two singles.
Bonaventure sits at 4-9 overall. They will be back in action Tuesday at Binghamton. The first pitch is at 3 p.m. ET and the game can be streamed on ESPN+.
lombarrl23@bonaventure.edu
