Daily Sports Digest: Iona’s Jackson Breaks School’s Wins Record

The Top Spot:

Wednesday saw split a double header with Stony Brook, but the bigger story was senior right-hander Sarah Jackson broke the school’s all time record for wins.

In her 52nd career victory Jackson pitched seven innings as the team won 6-3. The senior only gave up one earned run and struck out 11.

College Sports Notebook:

Cousins Makes Pick Sooner Rather then Later

Section 1’s Mr. Basketball, Isaiah Cousins of Mount Vernon, made his decision and next year he will be joining Lon Kruger and the Oklahoma Sooners.

Cousins was also looking at big name programs like Connecticut, Xavier and Virginia Tech as well as smaller schools like Rhode Island and Dayton.

The Mount Vernon shooting guard is the fifth incoming freshman to sign on to play for Oklahoma next year.

Spartans, Salerno on a torrid streak

Frank Salerno of New City had four hits and Nick Barbalato of Mahopac added three to lead the St. Thomas Aquinas College baseball team to a 13-6 victory over the University of Bridgeport in an East Coast Conference contest at Harbor Yard in Connecticut.

The Spartans have won five straight to improve to 16-8 overall, 4-0 in the ECC, while Bridgeport fell to 3-7, 0-2.

STAC was well-represented in an East Regional poll this week, as it moved up to the No. 4 slot in the d2baseballnews.com rankings.

Matt Marotta of Suffern had an RBI in the first inning as the Spartans struck early, and Mike Russo of Boca Raton, FL, had an RBI double, driving in Barbalato.

The Spartans drove Bridgeport starter Nick Vautrin out of the box in the second inning, after Salerno doubled to bring home Derek Hirsch of Roslyn. But reliever Garret Rogers walked catcher George Wargo of West Haverstraw to force in a run, and Marotta added a sacrifice fly to open a 5-0 lead.

Bridgeport pushed across a run in the third inning on starter Nick May of Middletown, but the freshman left-hander avoided further trouble, and worked out of a one-out, bases-loaded jam in the fourth.

STAC put the game away in the eighth inning as Salerno’s fourth hit of the day keyed a three-run rally.

Senior right-hander Ken Frawley of White Plains got the win in relief, improving to 3-1.

Salerno went 4 for 5 with three runs scored while Barbalato went 3 for 5.

The Spartans return to action when the University of Bridgeport visits Provident Bank Park in Pomona on Friday at 3 p.m. STAC then travels for a big twin-bill at Molloy on Saturday before returning to PBP to complete the weekend set with Molloy on Sunday.

Mortarboard musings

• The struggling Manhattan College softball team (1-18) can only hope for better when it opens Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference (MAAC) play on Saturday with a doubleheader at Rider (7-15-1). First pitch is set for 1 p.m. at Herb and Joan Young Field in Lawrenceville, NJ. Amanda Babcock of Haverstraw is second on the Jaspers in hitting with a .239 BA, behind Kate Bowen of Newton, CT, who is rolling along at a .357 clip.
• The St. Thomas Aquinas College softball team, coming off a doubleheader loss at Queens College, hopes to bounce back today with a doubleheader at home against Molloy at 3:30 p.m. Sharis Ruiz of Greenwood Lake went 2-for-3 in the second game against Queens after the Lady Spartans were held to two hits in the opener. Maura Power of Pearl River had an RBI in the second game, which Queens pulled out with two unearned runs in the sixth inning.
• The Pace University baseball team has changed its lineup, as Wednesday’s game at New Haven was rescheduled for today at 3:30 p.m., which then forced postponement of a scheduled game against Dominican College. Chris Roemer of Ardsley leads the Setters in hitting with a .390 batting average, while Charlie Galasso of West Harrison is batting .304. Pitcher Eddie Byrne of Yonkers, a Stepinac graduate, is 2-1 on the hill. The Chargers, based in Orangeburg, visit Concordia College in Bronxville today at 3 p.m., visit Felician (NJ) College on Friday at 7 p.m., and then play at Queens on Saturday at noon. Junior Andrew Camardella of Pelham leads Dominican in hitting with a .356 batting average, and his 14 RBI ties him for the team lead. Peter Martinez of White Plains is second in batting at .300.

Weekly Sports Poll:

With March in it’s final week this week’s sports poll deals with the NCAA Men’s Basketball Final Four in New Orleans. Kentucky and Louisville will play the early game on Saturday night quickly followed by Ohio State and Kansas. Now the only question left in the NCAA Basketball season, is .

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