Ferraioli delivers strong first start; Dawgs defeat Blue Sox 11-3

June 6, 2018 

By Jon Rathbun – TimesTelegram

UTICA, N.Y. – Iona College left-hander Mario Ferraioli fanned 10 batters and pitched into the seventh inning Wednesday and the Mohawk Valley DiamondDawgs defeated the Utica Blue Sox 11-3 for their fourth consecutive victory.

The DiamondDawgs took a 2-0 lead in the second inning and went ahead to stay in the third after the Blue Sox had tied the score.

Ferraioli, who pitched a no-hitter against Quinnapiac University as a sophomore this spring, allowed three runs on four hits and walked two batters over six innings. He was relieved with a 7-3 lead in the seventh after Mercer Community College’s Jerry Reinhart doubled and scored on Ferraioli’s error.

Niagara University’s Alex MacKinnon pitched two scoreless innings of relief and Alexis Calderon from Manhattan College pitched a hitless ninth. The three Mohawk Valley hurlers combined to strike out 12 Blue Sox.

SUNY-Albany’s Ryan Hernandez had his second four-RBI game in two days. His single in the third drove Barry University’s Joel Alvarez home and gave the DiamondDawgs a 3-2 lead, and he added a bases-loaded double in the eighth.

Hernandez, who also singled and scored in the second inning, is 12-for-23 to start the season and has nine runs batted in through four games. He also drove in a run in the DiamondDawgs’ exhibition game against the Rome Generals.

Villanova University’s Tyler Bruno drove Hernandez home in the first inning and catcher Stephen Furman, Ferraioli’s Iona teammate, added a sacrifice fly for a 2-0 lead.

Bruno had a sacrifice fly in the fourth inning, and Manhattanville College’s Austin Pollack and the University of Massachusetts at Lowell’s Joseph Castellanos produced a run with doubles on either side of Utica’s first pitching change of the night.

Castellanos and Alvarez had run-scoring singles in the sixth inning, and Pollack drove in the final run with a single in the ninth.

Castellanos and Bruno matched Hernandez with three of the 15 Mohawk Valley hits, and Furman, Pollack and Alvarez each had two. Alvarez, Bruno and Pollack all scored two runs.

L.J. Bryant from Andrew College drove in the first two Utica runs with a double in the second inning and was thrown out trying to stretch his hit to a triple. Reinhart singled, walked twice and scored two of the three runs for the Blue Sox.

Nico Ramos, the Siena College catcher from Holland Patent who played on the DiamondDawgs’ 2017 Perfect Game Collegiate Baseball League championship team, struck out in both of his at-bats for Utica.

The DiamondDawgs (4-1) remain unbeaten in four road games and went after their first win at home Thursday against the Adirondack Trail Blazers. They will play an exhibition game in Little Falls Friday and take on the expansion Watertown Rapids for the second time Saturday.