On beautiful Wednesday afternoon on Jeff Adams Field, the baseball team improved to 2-0 on the season with a 6-1 victory over Diamond Baseball Academy.

Justin Porrino took the ball for the Bears and worked a scoreless top of the 1st. A single followed a lineout to left, but catcher Chris Diesso erased the runner with a pick-off throw. DBA followed with a two-out walk, but centerfielder Tucker Genovesi took care of the final out on a liner.

The Bears lit up the scoreboard in the 1st inning for the second game in a row to take an edge they would not relinquish. Genovesi led off with a double off the centerfield wall. Porrino sacrificed Genovesi to third with a bunt before Tim Wozny drew a walk and promptly stole second. A wild pitch and an error on the throw home plated both runners for a 2-0 lead. Four consecutive walks followed as Smith, Jojo Franco, Aaron Babaev, and Sebastian Perez showed great discipline at the plate to push another run across. A sacrifice fly from Jayden Stroman plated a fourth run to cap the Bears’ 1st inning scoring.

In the top of the 2nd, Porrino used a fly out and a pair of 4-3 ground outs to work around a two-out walk, but the Bears went down in order in their half as the game moved to the 3rd. In the top half, Porrino got into his first bout of trouble, when the first two batters reached on a single and a walk, but the gritty senior bounced back with three straight strikeouts, needing just three pitches on the second, to slam the door shut on the inning. In the bottom half, a Franco double one-hopped the wall before Perez stung one up the middle to give the Brook a 5-0 edge.

Both teams worked a perfect 4th as Porrino gave way to Lee-Anthony Santiago who used two groundouts and a strikeout to retire the DBA side. In the top of the 5th, a single, a stolen base, a wild pitch, and a single gave DBA its only run of the game. The Bears got the run back in the bottom of the inning when Stephen Cisz doubled, Smith reached on an error by the leftfielder, and Franco drilled a ball up the middle for a 6-1 edge. Stroman took over mound duties for the final two innings and retired all six batters he faced, including a pair of strikeouts.

The Bears are back in action on Wednesday vs. Mt. Sinai at Diamond in the Pines.

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