By Rob Potter
LOCH SHELDRAKE — The Sullivan County Community College (SCCC) baseball team grabbed an early 2-0 lead in Tuesday afternoon’s Mid-Hudson Conference (MHC) game against the visiting Dutchess Community College Falcons.
Unfortunately for the Generals and their fans who were cheering them on, that advantage did not last too long.
The Falcons scored nine runs in the top of the third inning, which propelled them to a 20-4 victory.
SCCC (8-11, 4-6 MHC) scored the game’s first runs in the bottom of the second inning. Albert Bevacqua led off the frame by belting a double off the fence in left field. After moving to third base on a groundout, Bevacqua scored on a double by Cesar Delacruz.
The next batter, Ray Valdez, singled home Delacruz.
But Dutchess CC (15-10, 9-4 MHC) responded in the top of the third. An RBI double by Erik Hartling put the Falcons on the scoreboard and Eduardo Ochoa gave Dutchess a 3-2 lead with a two-run double.
Later in the frame, Robert Stewart blasted a grand slam home run over the fence in left center field to give the visitors a 9-2 lead.
The Falcons added six runs in the fifth, four in the sixth and one in the seventh.
“We hit the ball hard and found the gaps,” Dutchess Coach Stephen Greller said.
Greller also praised the performance of pitcher Steven Schurr, who earned the complete-game victory.
“He did a good job and only threw 100 pitches,” Greller said.
Despite falling behind 20-2, the Generals kept playing hard throughout the contest.
Freshman catcher Fred Moore III gave his teammates reason to cheer in the bottom of the seventh. With one out and Mark Roarty on first base, Moore ripped a homer to left field. After circling the bases, Moore was congratulated by his teammates at home plate.
SCCC Coach Mike Marra was understandably disappointed with the loss, especially since “this was the first weekday home game when the students were here to watch us play.”
But Marra was able to find some positive aspects of the loss.
“I’m glad that Freddy got his first home run here,” the third-year coach said.
“And the good thing is that we are at least splitting our series with conference opponents,” Marra added.
Notes: The Generals and Falcons are slated to play the second game of their four-game MHC series at 3:30 p.m. today at the SCCC on-campus field.
The series concludes with a doubleheader at noon tomorrow in Poughkeepsie.