OLD WESTBURY — Freshman Alex Brickman led off the 10th inning with the go-ahead home run, and classmates Zach Durfee and Rich Gilbride followed with run-scoring singles to lead Siena Baseball past NYIT 5-3 in extra innings in the series opener downstate. Sophomore hurlers Tommy Miller and Dylan D’Anna combined to record a staff season-high 13 strikeouts.
Brickman, senior Dan Swain and sophomore Brian Kelly each recorded two-hit afternoons for Siena (5-12) which has won five of nine after dropping its first eight games of the season. Brickman scored twice, while Kelly doubled, scored and stole a base.
Brickman scoring the tying run on a throwing error in the eighth, and then deposited the second pitch of the 10th over the left field wall to put the Saints in front 3-2. Kelly later singled and stole second, and was driven home on an RBI single by Durfee. Gilbride then backed him up with a run-scoring base knock of his own to cap the scoring.
NYIT (2-15) put the first two men aboard in the home half of the 10th to bring the tying run to the plate, and later loaded the bases with two outs and a run already home. But D’Anna ultimately struck out the side in the 10th, including pinch hitter Jeffrey Tabares to end it.
D’Anna fanned a career-best seven batters – six of which went down swinging – to earn the victory in relief, while Miller tied a career-high with six strikeouts over the first six innings of work.
Louis Mele tallied three hits for the Bears, while starting pitcher Matt Diaz struck out 10 Siena batters over 7.1 innings for NYIT which has dropped six straight.
The teams are scheduled to conclude the series Saturday with doubleheader action beginning at 1:30 p.m.
