Pomona, N.Y. (3/29/18) The Dominican College baseball team split a Central Atlantic Collegiate Conference (CACC) double-header with the visiting Golden Falcons of Felician University in games played today at Palisades Credit Union Park. DC fell in the opener, 12-5, but won the nightcap 7-5 to now stand at 5-16 overall and 4-1 in conference play.

With the split, the Chargers are now 5-16 overall and 4-1 in conference play.

Game One:  In the opening game, the Golden Falcons jumped out to a 7-1 lead following two innings of play.  In the bottom of the first, Dominican plated a run on a two out double to left centerfield off the bat of thirdbasemen Justin Decker (Rotterdam, N.Y.).

DC added two more runs in their half of the third inning on the sacrifice fly ball hit by second basemen Brian Rotella (Stony Point, N.Y.) and a RBI double to right center field by designated hitter Joe Rotelli (Morganville, N.J.) to make the score 7-3.  Shota Barbeau (Albany, Ga.) came home to score in the fourth on sacrifice fly ball to cut the lead to 7-4.

Following two more Felician runs in the seventh, the Chargers added a run in the bottom half as Tyler Malia (Delran, N.J.) was hit by-a-pitch with the bases loaded to trail 9-5.  The Golden Falcons added one more run in the eighth and two more runs in the ninth for the final 12-5 final.

Malia and Barbeau both had two hits in the loss.

Freshman Christopher Catoire (Brooklyn, N.Y.) took the loss (1-3) in two innings of work, allowing seven runs on eight hits.

Game Two:  Felician scored two runs in the first frame, but Dominican cut the deficit in half in the bottom of the first when Decker delivered a run-scoring single to centerfield.

A Golden Falcon run in the third rebuilt a two-run advantage, but the DC offense charged ahead with five runs in the third inning.  The first run came in on a failed pickoff attempt and the second scored on the RBI double to centerfield.  Two batters later, junior Anthony Bartolomei (Oakhurst, N.J.) produced a run-scoring single through the right side and later right fielder Joshua Colon (Bronx, N.Y.) recorded an RBI ground out.  An infield single from Brett Karcher-Bowen (Cypress, Texas) brought in the fifth run and gave the Chargers the 6-3 advantage.

Felician added a run in the fourth but Dominican got the run back in the fifth inning on the two out RBI double to right center field off the bat of Colon.  The Golden Falcons scored the last run of the game in the ninth for the final 7-5 win.

Colon had three RBIs in the contest, while Barbeau, Bartolomei and Karcher-Bowen all had two hits.  Decker finished with two hits and two RBIs.

Nathanial Popiel (Mechanicville, N.Y.) got the iwn (1-3) in five innings of work, allowing four runs (three earned) on eight hits and three strikeouts.

Senior Arben Becaj (Brooklyn, N.Y.) pitched three innings, scattering one hit and Nicholas Galese (Totowa, N.J.) earned his first save after pitching the ninth inning.

Dominican returns to action on Tuesday afternoon as they travel to Bloomfield College.