Mercer’s baseball team defeated non-conference opponent Monroe College of New York 12-6 at home on Tuesday, April 16 to bring their overall season record to 24-11. The Vikings were dominant throughout the game, at one point leading by nine runs.
Starting pitcher Dave Stec gave a strong performance on the mound, striking out six batters in five innings and giving up three runs, two of them earned. Sam Irvin relieved Stec in the top of the sixth inning. He pitched for two innings, striking out four and allowing one run.
Offensively, the Vikings left fielder Domenic Boselli went 3 for 5 at the plate, scoring 2 runs and batting in 4. Designated hitter Collin Sheehan had two hits and drove in two runs.
For the visiting team, shortstop Joseph Encarnacion led Monroe with three hits, two of which were solo home runs.
Stec (3-1) said that compared to previous starts, he had difficulty locating his two-seam fastball and change-up.
“What really saved me was being able to locate my offspeed, my curveball, my slider.” Stec said, continuing,“But because of that location with my offspeed, I was able to kind of mix it up a lot more and save myself without having two of my more important pitches.”
Stec reflected on the mental side of the game and trying to stay in control of his pitches.
“Sometimes you get a batter or two where you’re getting behind in the count. I really just got to focus on the fact I’m out here for a reason,” Stec said. “I’ve done this before and just kind of clear my mind and throw some strikes.”
The Vikings carried a 12-3 lead into the seventh inning. Monroe scored one run in the seventh off of Irvin and two runs in the eighth off of Justin Rouse.
Mercer head coach Fred Carella said he was pleased overall with his team’s performance against the Mustangs.
“I thought we played well. We hit the ball pretty well, we took our walks when we needed to,” Carella said. “We threw the ball very well, aside from towards the end of the game when the bullpen struggled a little bit.”
One area of improvement Carella thought his team could work on was their inconsistency on offense.
“We have days like against Monroe where we go out and score 12 runs and other days where we have to really fight just to get a couple across,” Carella said.
Monroe College (18-20) coach Manny Roman said he felt they could have done better, allowing Mercer to capitalize on the four errors they committed.
Roman said he wasn’t disappointed because his team lost, but rather that they didn’t compete to their ability.
“We had no fight at the plate and our pitchers were constantly pitching behind in the count,” Roman said. “Hats off to Mercer for capitalizing on our mistakes.”
The Vikings and the Mustangs met three times earlier in the season, including a doubleheader at home on March 30, and an away game the week before on April 10. Mercer won the first game at home and lost the second. They fell 1-2 to Monroe when they traveled to New Rochelle, NY.
“We knew Mercer was going to be a tough opponent like they are every year, so we needed to be at the top of our game,” Roman said. “We can’t take any team lightly just because we had beat them already.”
There was a moment of controversy in the top of the fourth inning when Monroe shortstop Joseph Encarnacion hit a long fly ball down the third base line and over the left field fence. The umpire judged that the ball stayed in fair territory and indicated it was a home run.
Vikings head coach Fred Carella saw it differently.
“What I saw was that the ball cleared the fence by plenty, but it was foul. It stayed right on the line and stayed foul the entire time,” Carella said.
The Vikings head coach briefly left the dugout to argue his point with the umpire.
“[His] response was that it hooked foul after it had already cleared the pole,” Carella said. “Our catcher and our third baseman both agreed with me and the guys in the dugout did as well. I mean it was close, but from our vantage point it was clearly foul.”
This run brought the score to 2-2.
The Vikings were not deterred by the umpire’s decision. Mercer went on to score five runs in both the bottom of the fourth and fifth innings.
With the regular season coming to an end at the beginning of May, the Vikings will next head to the regional playoffs.
“The region tournament starts May 10, so really the key for us is to keep focusing on playing well, doing the little things right, playing as a team, playing all together,” Stec said. He added, “[We’re] getting hot before the playoffs and hopefully, that will just kind of roll right into it.”
