Box Score Postgame Highlights - The College of Staten Island men's baseball squad jumped out to an early lead en route to an 11-2 win over Drew University as part of the 12th Annual Grace Hillery Breast Cancer Awareness Night at the Tomas D. Morales Baseball Field in Willowbrook. More important than the game, however, was the tally in the donation category, as the Dolphins raised a total of over $8,000 in funds to support CSI's own Staten Island Breast Cancer Research Initiative.
The annual highlight to the baseball season at CSI is a tribute to Grace Hillery, mother to former Dolphin baseball star Anthony Hillery, who lost her battle with breast cancer in 2004. Fund-raising for the Staten Island Breast Cancer Research Initiative started early and never stopped at the ballpark, with money generated through T-shirt sales, raffles, 50/50, concessions, and straight donations. The money raised this year puts the overall total over the past 12 years at over $63,000.
The evening kicked off with introductions of several key figures, including Hillery and CSI President Dr. William Fritz, Director of Athletics
Charles Gomes, CSI coaches Mike Mauro and
Neil Barbella and members of the SIBCRI, led by Executive Director Donna Gerstle. They were joined by local celebrity Bethany Watson, the Co-host of the Elvis Duran and the Morning Show on Z100, 100.3FM.
The rousing introductions were followed by the kick-off donation, made by title sponsor One-on-One Rehabilitation Services in the amount of $1,000, presented by Joe Saraceno and Rich Bodian. Following the initiative, the game's ceremonial first pitch was offered by both Ms. Allie Vreeland and Watson, who both threw perfect strikes to get the game started. A breast cancer survivor, Vreeland is undergoing chemo therapy as she continues her battle.
On the field of play, the Dolphins jumped out to a quick 3-0 lead through the first four innings thanks to a pair extremely athletic defensive plays by
Nick Delprete at second base to keep the Rangers off of the scoreboard.
The Dolphins were led by
George Kantzian on the offensive side as he went 2-for-4 with 2 RBIs and a run. Staten Island found themselves on the bases quite often tonight as Drew's pitcher's amassed 13 walks in the game. CSI wasn't able to capitalize however, as they left 15 runners on the bags tonight.
Mike Fitzpatrick pitched eight innings in tonight's win, striking out four batters and allowed seven hits with 1 earned run. Jason Faillia came in, in the 9th inning and struck out the last three batters for Drew to end the game and allow the Dolphins to win their second Breast Cancer game in a row.
The Dolphins exploded for five runs in the seventh inning thanks to one error and a couple of wild pitches. Staten Island held the Rangers to just one more run while scoring two of their own.
CSI ended the game with 11 runs on 11 hits with just one error while the Rangers finished with 2 runs on 7 hits and three errors.
The Dolphins are back in action tomorrow night against Farmingdale State here at the College of Staten Island at 5:00 pm.
