Posted: Apr 16, 2016
WALTHAM, Mass. – The Brandeis University baseball team met University Athletic Association rivals NYU on Stein Diamond for the first time ever today and the Judges swept the Violets, 7-3 and 6-2. The Judges have now won three in a row and improve to 11-15-1 on the season, while NYU falls to 12-15.
GAME ONE – HIGHLIGHTS
- The Judges pounded out 11 hits – including six doubles – and scored multiple times in three of their six at-bats to defeat NYU, 7-3, in the opener.
- Sophomore 3B Luke Zeccola (Garden City, N.Y./Chaminade) was the hitting star for the Judges, going 3-3 with three RBI.
- All three of his hits were doubles, his first two-baggers of the season.
- Senior CF Liam O'Connor (Avon, Conn./Avon) also had three hits and a double.
- The other doubles belonged to seniors Ryan Healy (Carlsbad, Calif./La Costa Canyon) and Greg Heineman (Wilbraham, Mass./Minnechaug Regional).
- Senior catcher Connor Doyle (Avon, Conn./Avon Old Farms) was 1-3 with two runs scored.
- Doyle also shined behind the plate, throwing out all four NYU attempted base-stealers in game one. He finished the day 5-for-7, throwing out 1-of-3 in the second contest.
- Junior DH Marvic Gomez (Providence, R.I./Juanita Sanchez) drove in a pair of Brandeis runs on sacrifice flies.
- On the hill, junior righty Liam Coughlin (Townsend, Mass./Lowell Catholic) picked up the win, tossing 4.2 innings of six-hit ball.
- Coughlin allowed three runs and walked one and struck out one to improve to 2-1 on the season.
- After throwing a six-inning two-hitter in his previous outing, Coughlin faced the minimum through three innings this time out, thanks to Doyle erasing two Violet would-be thieves.
- Trailing 5-0 after three innings, NYU broke through in the fourth, scoring all three runs on five hits.
- All six NYU hitters reached base, but Doyle again threw two out on the base-paths, plus a fielder's choice.
- The Brandeis bullpen of sophomore Bradley Bousquet (Athol, Mass./Athol), rookie Daniel Schupper (Villanova, Pa./Harriton) and Healy allowed just two base runners over the final 2.1 innings.
- NYU catcher CJ Picerni was the Violets' only multiple hitter, going 2-3 with a double.
- The Violets' Chase Denison suffered the loss, giving up eight hits and five earned runs over the first three innings.
GAME TWO – HIGHLIGHTS
- The Judges wasted little time in the second game, getting to NYU's Colman Hendershot for four runs on five hits and two errors in the bottom of the first as they batted around.
- Rookie Benjamin Bavly (Newton, Mass./Newton South) and Zeccola each had a double in the frame, while Heineman tripled and scored on a wild pitch.
- In the second inning, Bavly singled, stole second and moved to third on a passed ball before Heineman brought him home with a seeing-eye single up the middle making it 5-0 Judges for the second game in a row.
- Brandeis sophomore starter Ryan Pocock (Westford, Mass./Westford) kept the visitors at bay through the fourth inning.
- NYU scored a run in the fifth on an error, a Jack Walter double and two hit batters, but Pocock induced a 6-4-3 double play to avoid further damage.
- The Violets got back-to-back doubles from Jonathan Iaione and Scott Hilbrandt to open the sixth, but Bousquet and Schupper closed the door again on the visitors.
- Eight of the nine Brandeis starters had hits, led by Bavly, who went 3-4 with two runs scored, an RBI and a double.
- Heineman finished as the only Judges with multiple hits in both games, going 2-4 with his triple, run scored and an RBI.
- He finished 4-7 with three runs, an RBI, a double and a triple in the two contests.
- Pocock improved to 2-2 on the season with five innings of six-hit pitching. He surrendered two runs (one earned) and struck out two while walking one.
- Hendershot fell to 0-3 by allowing seven hits and five earned runs in two innings of action.
UP NEXT
- The teams will close out their three-game series tomorrow with a single game at noon.