Felician Athletics - 4/17/08 BASEBALL - Spina, 13 Hits Lead Baseball Past Mercy

DOBBS FERRY, N.Y. -- Junior right-hander Anthony Spina (Toms River, NJ) struck out a career-high nine batters in 6 2/3 innings of relief work, leading Felician College to an 8-3 non-conference baseball victory over host Mercy College on Thursday afternoon at Mercy Field.

Felician (16-16) struck for three first-inning runs on a Jon Del Franco (Bridgewater, NJ) RBI groundout and a two-run single by Hector Bello (Miami, FL). Starting pitcher Marcus McCleod (East Windsor, NJ), making his first career appearance, danced into and out of trouble in the early-going, as Mercy left the bases loaded without scoring in each of the first two innings.

But after McCleod issued consecutive bases-loaded walks with one out in the bottom of the third, Golden Falcon coach Chris Langan summoned Spina, who preserved the one-run lead. Felician then took control with four runs in the top of the fourth, highlighted by a Mickey Zudonyi (Holmdel, NJ) two-run triple.

Spina kept the Mavericks off the scoreboard until yielding a homerun to Jonathan Cohen (Roslyn Heights, NY) leading off the ninth. He scattered six hits and did not allow a walk. Freshman Jeff Abreu (Nutley, NJ) picked up his first career hit, and Vinnie DiBenedetti (Forked River, NJ) and Albie Sanguiliano (Flemington, NJ) were among four Golden Falcons with two base hits.

Felician finished with 13 hits and Mercy (10-20), which stranded 15 baserunners, had 11 hits on the day. Cohen went 3 for 5 and scored twice for the Mavericks.

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