Baseball Kicks Off Series Against Case Western Reserve With Comeback Win
New York University's baseball team (10-14, 4-9) opened the first game of a four-game UAA series against Case Western Reserve University (15-16, 4-9) on Friday at the Staten Island University Hospital Community Park.
In a game full of offense, the Violets defeated the Spartans by a score of 12-10.
Kosta Mocklis responded to CWRU's four-run first inning with a solo shot over the fence to open NYU's scoring. Mocklis, the UAA's home run leader, hit his seventh home run of the season with the first inning homer.
The Spartans extended their lead to 7-1 in the top half of the second, but again, NYU responded in the bottom of the frame, this time scoring seven runs to take their its lead of the game.
The Violets, trailing 9-8, regained the lead in the fifth inning thanks to CJ Franchini's two-run double.
NYU's pitching and defense settled in after the first two innings, holding CWRU to just two runs in the next four innings.
Even at 10 in the bottom of the seventh, Franchini broke the tie by hitting a two-run shot to give NYU its largest lead of the game.
Ansel Balmer put together one of his best performances of the season, setting career highs in innings pitched (4.2) and strikeouts (7) to help NYU pick up the game one win.
Notable Stats:
- Mocklis has homered in three of the last four games
- Franchini in his first game back to action extended his hit streak to 11 games
- Balmer struck out four of the last six batters he faced
- NYU completed its largest comeback of the season