Yesterday afternoon, the Bears took their 7-0 record on the road to St. John the Baptist, one of the parochial powers on Long Island baseball, and returned to campus with a 4-0 victory. It marked the fourth shutout in the last five games for the Blue & White who have outscored their opponents 86-23 over their first eight games.

The Bears quite literally came out swinging as Aiden Ruiz slammed the first pitch of the game over the left field wall to set the tone for the Bears. In the bottom half of the inning, Chris Nell gave up a leadoff walk but sat the next three Cougars down in order.

The Brook was held in check in the 2nd and 3rd innings as St. John’s pitching retired seven straight Bears at one point, but Jordan Serrano jump-started the offense in the 4th with a first-pitch triple to right. Anthony DeCesare followed with a walk before a double steal sent Serrano home with the Bears’ second run. DeCesare then stole third base before Travis Stroud II walked to put runners at the corners with one out. Josh Diaz then executed a perfect sacrifice bunt that plated DeCesare to give the Bears a 3-0 lead.

The Cougars looked to rally in the bottom of the 4th with consecutive singles to open the frame, but Nell needed just seven pitches to ring up a pair of strikeouts and then induced a pop out on the very next pitch to escape trouble.

The Blue & White tacked on another run in the top of the 5th when they loaded the bases with nobody out on singles by Alex Baaden and Ruiz and a Larry Hotaling III walk. Serrano followed with an RBI single to push the Bear advantage to 4-0. It proved to be the Bears’ last run, but the 4-0 lead would be more than enough of a cushion in the hands of Nick Parker.

The junior didn’t allow a single baserunner over his 3.0 innings, retiring nine Cougars in order and striking out 3 to earn an impressive save and nail down an 8-0 start to the season. Nell earned the victory with 3 hits and 0 runs over 4.0 innings with 6 strikeouts. Ruiz (2 H/ 1 RBI) and Serrano (2 H/ 1 RBI) powered the offense.

The Bears are back on the diamond on Wednesday in a home rematch with St. John’s.

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