Felician Athletics - 3/19/08 BASEBALL - Felician Drops Two On Last Day In Florida

FORT MYERS, Fla. -- The Felician College baseball team lost both ends of a non-conference doubleheader, 8-3 and 7-2, to the University of Minnesota-Duluth on Wednesday afternoon during its final day of play at the Gene Cusic Collegiate Classic at Terry Park.

Felician (6-10) took an early lead in Game 1 on sophomore Jon Del Franco's (Bridgewater, NJ) first career homerun, a solo shot with two outs in the top of the second inning. But Minnesota-Duluth chased Golden Falcon starter Nick Riker (Highlands, NJ) (0-3) with six runs on five hits in the bottom of the third. Felician drew closer with two unearned runs in the fourth, but the Bulldogs' Gary Wilfahrt Jr. (New Ulm, MN) tossed three shutout innings to save the victory for starter Kyle Zweber (Lakeville, MN).

UMD's Bryan Denisen (Rochester, MN) went 3 for 4, and teammates Josh Threlkeld (Burnsville, MN) and Andrew Heieie (Apple Valley, MN) drove in two runs apiece. Freshman Hector Bello (Miami, FL) went 3 for 3 and Chris Flynn (Keyport, NJ) was 2 for 3 with a double for Felician.

In the nightcap, the Bulldogs took advantage of six Felician errors to score six unearned runs. Golden Falcon right-hander Scott VanEs (Secaucus, NJ) (0-2) allowed five runs (none earned) on five hits in five innings, striking out four. The Golden Falcons pulled to within 5-2 in the bottom of the fifth when Vinnie DiBenedetti (Forked River, NJ) blasted a one-out RBI triple to right field and scored on a Bello groundout, but Felician was limited to only four hits for the game.

Josh Foreman (Shawano, WI) pitched two no-hit innings for a save in support of Bulldog starter Cole Hytjan (Eden Prairie, MN), who struck out five and yielded no earned runs in five innings. David Olson (Lakeville, MD) had two doubles and two RBI for UMD (12-7).

Game 1 Box
Game 2 Box