Photo: St. Bonaventure Athletics
BY RYAN LOMBARDI, CONTRIBUTING WRITER
On Friday, St. Bonaventure traveled to Mount St. Mary’s for a four-game weekend series.
Chance Moore, a redshirt junior, toed the rubber for the Bonnies in Game One. Moore went four innings, allowing three earned runs and striking out three.
Redshirt senior right fielder Adam Rankie got Bonaventure on the board early with a ground out that scored redshirt senior center fielder Paul Vossen.
The Mount took a two-run lead into the fourth after home runs from senior catcher Efrain Correa Jr. and senior first baseman Shane Wockley.
Freshman catcher Antonio Cordeiro erased the lead by blasting his second home run of the year, tying the game at 3-3.
Redshirt senior second baseman Kyle Caccamise broke the tie in the seventh with an RBI double, followed by a Rankie long ball that extended the Bonnies’ lead to 7-3.
Mount St. Mary’s would rally back and make it a one-run ball game, but redshirt junior Tristan Ciampa halted its offense. Ciampa dominated through two and a third, allowing only one hit while striking out three.
Sophomore Bobby Finn earned the win in relief, going two and two-thirds. Bonaventure won Game One 7-6.
On Saturday, the teams split a two-game doubleheader.
Freshman Deven Sheerin started for the Mount in Game Two. He took a no-hitter into the seventh inning until graduate student third baseman Jack Putney blasted a lead off homer.
That would be the only score for the Bonnies, as Sheerin finished his gem with a strikeout to end the game.
Bonnie’s sophomore ace Michael Salina got tagged with the loss. He allowed only three runs on four hits. He also struck out four.
In Game Three, it was a different story for the Bonnies’ offense, as they scored in the second inning. Sophomore left fielder Chris Hoalcraft hit a sacrifice fly, bringing home junior first baseman Morgan Little and giving Bonaventure a 1-0 lead.
Kade Walker started for the Bonnies. He allowed three runs in the third inning, giving the Mount a 3-1 lead. Walker’s day ended after five innings, only giving up two earned runs. He also struck out four. The junior has 12 strikeouts in his last two games.
Cordeiro had an RBI single in the fifth to cut the lead to one, but Mount St. Mary’s quickly answered back with an RBI single of its own off the bat of senior left fielder Aiden Tierney.
The Mount took a 4-2 lead into the last inning, needing just three outs to complete the doubleheader sweep, but the Bonnies did not make it easy.
With one out, Rankie doubled, scoring Vossen to cut the deficit to one. Later in the inning, Putney drove in Rankie to send it to extras.
In the eighth, junior shortstop David Marshall Jr. sent a two-run blast over the wall, giving Bonaventure a 6-4 advantage. However, the lead did not last long.
In the bottom half of the inning, Correa Jr. answered with a two-run home run to knot the game at six apiece.
With one out in the top half of the ninth, Putney came up and launched a go-ahead home run. Marshall would drive in an extra insurance run and Bonaventure took a two-run lead into the bottom of the ninth.
Sophomore reliever Noah Czajkowski shut the door and earned the win as the Bonnies improved to 6-11 on the year.
The Bonnies seeked out their first series win of 2024 in Game Four.
St. Bonaventure’s offense exploded in the second and hit a grand slam to give the Bonnies a 4-0 lead.
The Mount answered back with four of their own after a Wockley RBI single and a sophomore center fielder Josh Braxton three-run homer.
The Bonnies regained the lead again in the fourth but would be interrupted in the bottom half of the inning because of another Wockley RBI through a solo home run.
Bonaventure climbed the scoreboard in the sixth with eight runs. Rankie drove in two with an RBI double, followed by a Cordeiro three-run home run. Later in the inning, Hoalcraft drove in a run with a groundout and Vossen capped off the big inning with a single that scored two.
The offensive burst from St. Bonaventure would be too much to overcome for Mount St. Mary’s, resulting in a 17-8 win in Game Four for the Bonnies.
St. Bonaventure currently sits with a 7-11 record and will travel to Penn St. on Tuesday to take on the Lions in a one-game series. First pitch comes at 5 p.m. ET and the game can be listened to on the Bonnies Online Network.
lombarrl23@bonaventure.edu
