Finger Lakes Loses Two to CCBC Dundalk
By Jimmy Habecker
DUNDALK, MD. – The Finger Lakes CC baseball team continued its spring break trip down in Maryland on Thursday, where it visited CCBC Dundalk. Unfortunately, the Lakers woes continued as they dropped an afternoon doubleheader to the Lions 10-2 and 9-1. Finger Lakes is now 1-7 on the season.
In game one, Dundalk jumped out to an early start against Finger Lakes starter Dakota Stackhouse. The Lakers were down 5-0 going into the fifth, but that is when they would get on the board. Troy Loparco started the inning off with a leadoff single. After Loparco reached base, Dylan Catlin and Nicholas Petrantoni would follow the sophomores' single with consecutive singles of their own. Petrantoni's hit would drive in Loparco for the Lakers first run. Aaron Freida would later walk to load the bases with two outs in the inning, however all three runners would be stranded.
Loparco would score the Lakers second and final run in the sixth inning. He would reach on a fielder's choice, and after doing so, would steal second and third base during a Catlin at-bat. Catlin would finish his at-bat with a sharply hit single to score Loparco. That would be the end of the scoring for Finger Lakes. Catlin and Petrantoni would both finish with a pair of hits and an RBI apiece. Joey Simmons also had a pair of hits for the Lakers, who tied a season high as a team with 9 hits.
In game two, Finger Lakes would jump out to an early lead. Lakers catcher Branden Rhodes would double down the left field line to start the second inning. Catlin would yet again drive in a runner with a single to post the early 1-0 lead. Dundalk would answer with a run of its own in the bottom of the inning. It could have been worse, but on a single to left, Freida fielded it, hit the cut off man Danny D'Eletto, and in return, D'Eletto delivered a strike to Rhodes to tag out a runner at the plate.
Lakers starter Derick Fera pitched well in a spot start in the nightcap on short rest. He allowed just 6 hits in four plus innings of work. However, the offense, which was able to put pressure on the Lions all game, was not able to get the big hit to push any other runs across. Dundalk would build itself a large lead as it put up 7 runs on the scoreboard over the final two innings of the contest before going on to win 9-1.
The Lakers will play their final set of games in Maryland today as they are scheduled to take on Allegany College of Maryland in an afternoon doubleheader. Game one will get underway at 1:00 pm.