Baseball dominates Alliance in season-opening doubleheader
NEWARK, New Jersey - The American International College baseball team opened the 2023 season with a bang, scoring 34 runs in 14 innings of a doubleheader sweep of Alliance University, 15-2 and 19-3, on Sunday, February 26.
AIC is now 2-0 on the year.
Alliance started the scoring with a sacrifice fly in the first, but the Yellow Jackets quickly took control. A Brandon Gaul double, followed by an error and a walk, loaded the bags for Jackson Haker, who roped a triple into the left-center gap to drive in three, and then he scored on a wild pitch to put AIC up 4-1.
In the fourth, AIC broke the game open. Ryan Lavelle and Michael Cruz both reached and Haker drove them both home again, and then came home himself a second time one batter later on an inside the park home run by Kiernan Caffrey. Kyle Leifert and Chad Lavelle then got onto the basepaths, which set up Gaul to drive them in and make the lead 10-1.
The bats kept hot in the fifth with Ryan Lavelle singling to lead off and scoring on a Haker double; Caffrey walked and then Leifert drove Haker in with an RBI single; Caffrey came home on a Chad Lavelle sacrifice fly, and Leifert scored on a Gaul triple to left as AIC took a 14-1 edge. AIC finished the offensive onslaught with a Ryan Lavelle triple and Cruz RBI single in the sixth for the 15-2 final.
In game two, the Yellow Jackets bashed their best inning of the day, scoring eight in the second. Yeudy Ramirez started the scoring with a single to right-center that brought Gaul in, and then Ryan Lavelle drove him and Richie Segura home with a hit to center. Later in the inning, Caffrey hit a two-run single to right, and Gaul, in his second plate appearance of the frame, drove in two more with a hit up the middle. Chad Lavelle came home on an error to put the snowman on the scorebooard.
Alliance scored three in the home half of that frame, but the Yellow Jackets kept putting up runs. Haker had another two-run single to center in the third, Gaul smacked another RBI single in the fourth, scoring on a Ryan Lavelle sacrifice fly, and Chad Lavelle whacked an RBI double to center field in the fifth to put AIC up 13-3.
The last two frames featured even more AIC offense. Shea Cuccinotta scored on a double steal with Ryan Lavelle, who came home on a fielding error, to get AIC to 15 again through six, and in the final inning, Austin Bequeath and Haker bookended the inning with sacrifice flies, while Segura and Cruz each added another RBI single for the 19-3 final.
On the bump, Vaughn O'Leary earned the win in game one with five innings of three hit, one run work, fanning five in relief of Ethan Teixeira, who threw two hitless innings but conceded four walks and a run. Kaden Peterson won the second game with four innings of work, allowing one hit but seven walks, striking out seven, and Jayden Maynard piicked up the save with three perfect innings to close the game, fanning three.
The two teams finish the four-game set on Monday, February 27 beginning at noon.