Fifth Edition of Riley's Ramblings

Throughout the 2011 baseball season, sophomore Alex Riley (Baldwinsville, N.Y.) will be providing insights on this year's UB team from a player's point of view.  Below is the fifth installment of Riley's Ramblings, as Alex takes a look at the Purple Knights' in action last week.

RILEY'S RAMBLINGS-EDITION FIVE

Now entering what could be considered the home stretch of our lengthy season, we entered play against Queens College for a five game series.  Queens is the team that eliminated our ECC tournament bid in 2010, so our players were understandably motivated.  This was also a big series as it was a perfect opportunity to gain ground on first place Molloy, and attempt for a late rally to win the regular season conference title.

In the first game of the series, both teams scored one run in the first inning.  Then in the third inning Gaetano Giunta broke the tie on a freak play in which he somehow avoided a tag while stuck in a pickle on the third base line consequently scampering home to score the go ahead run amid mass confusion from every player and fan in attention.  Queens then mounted three runs on the scoreboard in the fifth inning where they managed to hit two lengthy triples to the left center gap.  We then answered for the second time in the game as we matched the Queens offensive by plating three runs of our own.  The following inning we drove the nail in the coffin by scoring two more runs after a lead off Tyler Moffatt triple quickly gave us the momentum needed to do so.  Following this, an event shocking to nobody occurred as Matt Bartolomei ended the game swiftly.

For game two of the series, we traveled to Queens to try to pick up yet another much needed win.  The game started off with a two run first inning for us, but this was quickly negated as Queens scored a whopping six in the third and three in the fourth.  The score was nine to two.  We needed a momentum builder to happen fast as our odds on winning this game were already slim to none.  Then lefty freshman Pauly "Walnuts" Spadacenta took the mound for his first inning of the season and in the total of about forty five seconds retired three batters in order and gave us the foundation to start a comeback.  Then right on cue our bats exploded and somehow after plating eight runs we took the improbable lead which we never relinquished resulting in the final score of UB: 18 Queens:10.  Peter Barrows had a mediocre performance driving home a modest six runs in the match, edging out Matt Ranaudo who had a minuscule four RBI's, not to mention that Ryan Barba and Eric Schlitter had multiple RBI's while Gaetano Giunta and Tyler Moffatt drove in a run during this slug fest.  I swear to you that this was not a football game as it was indeed the highest scoring game of wooden bat baseball we have ever seen.  And I think it is fitting and proper to give Spadacenta another shout out as he was the player that started it all by throwing that dominant inning.

Following this game we opened up the double header the following day being humbled falling 4-2 in a ballgame where we just could not build momentum.  Entering the second game we needed a win as with another loss our chances to catch Molloy would decrease exponentially.  So as is commonly done, head coach John Anquillare called on his work horse, "Mr. Bread and Butter" Matt Bartolomei.  After falling behind 2-0 Bartolomei blanked Queens for the duration of the ballgame.  Then our left handed sluggers took center stage as both Gaetano Giunta and Eric Schlitter hit towering home runs over the right field fence.  Peter Barrows and Tyler Moffatt also had noteworthy performances going 2-4 as these hitters helped give us some much needed insurance, sending us home with a win.

For the series finale, we learned just how cruel of a game baseball can be.  I say this because despite giving up seven hits in the ballgame, it was apparent that Anthony Plomitallo had his whole repertoire working.  None of these hits by the Queens batters came remotely close to reaching our outfielders as these were all "slap hits" that happened to find holes in the infield.  In the seventh inning Tom Wiacek entered the game.  Tom would go on to pitch the game of his life as he blanked Queens in each of his five innings of relief work.  Finally in the eleventh inning of play, after Pete Barrows starting our assault with a single, Ryan Barba got a hold of a ball that scored Pete Barrows to win the game. 

As this series drew to a close, Pete Barrows and Tom Wiacek were rightfully named ECC Players of the Week as they both were dominant in play and gave us performances necessary to win this series convincingly.  In conclusion, when concluding a week with four wins, all coming back from a deficit, you know that a team is poised and motivated to accomplish great things.  And lucky for us, we are in perfect position to do that.