CARY, N.C. – In their fifth meeting this season, the Pace University baseball team cruised to a 16-5 victory over Dominican College on Sunday down at the USA Baseball National Training Complex. The Setters are now 4-1 on the season against Dominican. The win also capped off a 5-1 week for Pace, improving the Setters to 11-7 on the season. Dominican drops to 6-9 with the loss.
Pace broke the game open in the first inning and never looked back from that point on. The Setters rallied for six runs in the bottom of the first, including a pair of two-RBI doubles by senior third baseman
Nick LoBello (Baldwin, N.Y./Baldwin) and graduate shortstop
Brett Bittiger (Saylorsburg, PA/Pius X).
Another pair of doubles added to Pace's lead in the third. Junior left fielder
James Wynne (North Salem, NY/North Salem) knocked in junior first baseman
Garrett De Lotto (Southbury, CT/Pomperaug) with a two-bagger, and then Wynne scored on one by junior designated hitter
Domenick Luongo (Darien, CT/Cardinal Spellman) to make it an 8-0 Pace advantage.
In the sixth, the big blow came off the bat of junior right fielder
Cory Capaldi (Telford, PA/Souderton), who tripled with the bases loaded to bring three runs across. Capaldi then scored the fourth run of the inning on a single by De Lotto to make it 12-0 Setters.
A four-run seventh included another big double, this time by De Lotto, who plated two more runs for the Setters with his hit. Dominican pieced together five runs in the final two innings of the game, but it was not enough to mount a comeback.
Sophomore starter
Michael Amato (Farmingdale, NY/Sachem East/Suffolk CC) picked up his first win of the year, tossing six shutout innings while striking out three batters and allowing just two hits. Graduate reliever
Tim Deegan (Levittown, NY/Kellenberg Memorial) picked up his first save of the year after going the final three innings. Dominican's Thomas Saffiotti took the loss to fall to 1-2.
De Lotto finished up 4-for-5 with three doubles and three RBIs to lead Pace on a big offensive day. Wynne hit 3-for-4 with two RBIs, two runs and a double. Capaldi knocked in three runs with his triple in the sixth, and LoBello went 1-for-3 with two runs and two RBIs. By the end of the Sunday's contest, the Setters hit a season-best eight doubles.
The Setters take four days off of competition before opening their Northeast-10 Conference schedule with a matchup against Southern Connecticut State University on Friday, March 25 at Peter X. Finnerty Field. First pitch is set for 3 p.m. The three-game series will continue with a doubleheader at Finnerty Field on Saturday beginning at 12 p.m.
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