Reading Bulldogs

In two must win games for the Bulldogs, they came away 2-0 on the night while securing their spot in the playoffs. Both games were played at Endicott College against the Arlington Trojans.

The first game played started off in the bottom half of the fifth inning as it had previously been suspended due to rain with a score of 5-3 Bulldogs. In the 6th, Rosario Missiti started things off with a double and was advanced to third base with only one out. Missiti scored off of a fielder’s choice from Johnny Hayes pushing the lead to 6-3. Now in the 7th inning, Chris Bosco lead off with a single and advanced to second on stolen base. The next batter, Mike Taylor, smoked a line drive up the middle to plate Bosco and push the score to 7-3.

Steve Hueston pitched the final three innings for the Bulldogs of this game, allowing only one hit in a dominant performance. He struck out 3 and rolled one double play to help seal the win for Reading.

In the second game, Reading was firing on all cylinders and put together solid performances in all phases of the game. Colby Morris took the mound for Reading and allowed only 2 runs on 4 hits through 5 full innings. Alex Mandrus came into relief for the final two innings where he gave up only 1 hit and struck out 4.

The offense started earlier and often when Darren Hartwell singled and ended up scoring after a throwing error by the catcher. In the second inning, Corey DiLoretto led it off with a single and advanced to second base on a fielder’s choice. Mike Taylor then came through with RBI single making the score 2-0. The next batter, Rosario Missiti, doubled to left center putting Taylor on third with only one out. Darren Hartwell came up next and did his job by hitting a sacrifice fly to score Taylor from third.

The third inning is when the Bulldogs really broke the game open putting up a 5 spot on 5 hits. Mike DeDonato started it off with a double and then scored off a RBI double by Zac Talis. After a Chris Bosco walk and a pass ball allowing Talis to move to third base and Bosco to second base, DiLoretto knocked Talis in with a sacrifice fly. Bosco went on to score off of a pass ball. With the offense still rolling, Mike Taylor crushed an opposite field homerun to deep left field. The scoring didn’t stop yet as Rosario Missiti hit another double and then scored off of an RBI single by Darren Hartwell. At the end of this big inning the score was Reading 8, Arlington 0.

The Bulldogs went on to score two more runs in the game and ended up winning by a final score of 10-2. Reading finished with 10 runs off 14 hits, 7 of which were extra base hits.

Up and down the lineup, everyone contributed in this offensive attack. Darren Hartwell had 3 hits with 2 RBI’s, DeDonato hit two doubles, DiLoretto hit two singles with 3 RBI’s, Taylor had two hits which included a homerun to go along with 2 RBI’s, and Missiti had a pair of doubles.

Looking to build momentum off of these two big wins, Reading awaits to here who they will play and when they will play for the first round of playoffs.

All photos can be found at: http://shartwell.zenfolio.com/bulldogs17