Felician Athletics - 4/29/07 BASEBALL - Felician Falls To D-I NJIT Despite Quintana's Record HR

NEWARK, N.J. -- Despite senior Frank Quintana's (Miami, FL) record-breaking 12th homerun of the season, the Felician baseball team lost to host New Jersey Institute of Technology, 8-7, in 10 innings on Sunday afternoon at Bears & Eagles Riverfront Stadium.

Quintana's two-run homer to left field with one out in the top of the seventh inning broke a 3-3 tie. The Golden Falcons (18-22) tacked on two runs in the ninth inning, but Division-I NJIT tied the game in their half of the ninth on a two-out, grand slam homerun by Derrick McCain (Piscataway, NJ). All four of the runs were unearned due to a Felician fielding error earlier in the inning. The Highlanders' Kwesi Mitchell (Piscataway, NJ) led off the bottom of the 10th with a solo homer off of Anthony Spina (Toms River, NJ) (3-1).

Cory Kuzmik (Teaneck, NJ) (3-2) earned the victory with 1 1/3 innings of one-hit relief. Miguel Lugo (Jersey City, NJ) homered and Matt Schlitter (Harbeson, DE) was 2 for 4 with a two-run single for NJIT (10-18). Felician's Vinnie DiBenedetti (Forked River, NJ) was 3 for 6 with a double, triple and two runs scored. Starting pitcher Danny Conti (Matawan, NJ) yielded three runs on four hits and struck out five batters in 6 1/3 innings.

Quintana broke his own school record of 11 homers in a season set in 2005. His record 31 career roundtrippers are 13 more than the next highest Felician total. On the day he was 2 for 4 with two stolen bases.