Following the sweep on Sunday July 6th against the first place Trenton Generals, the Eagles were looking to keep their momentum going on Tuesday against the Jersey Pilots.  Brian Drapeau, from Long Island University, was given the ball to start this game.  And man did he pitch a gem, getting a 2-1 win.  It was his first win of the season and hopefully it has him back on track for the most important stretch run of the season.

Brian pitched seven strong innings giving up only two hits and one earned run. Chris Baldi
(Amherst College) pitched an easy 8th inning giving up just one hit for the hold.  Then the Eagle closer, Steven Bloodworth, the rising senior from Wagner College, pitched a perfect ninth, driving in the final nail into the Jersey Pilot coffin by striking out Sean Feeney.

The game was scoreless until the top of the fifth, with the count on Feeney 2-0, hits a line drive to left-center over Shane Brown’s head for a double.  The next batter, Greg Kocinsky, lined a double again over Brown’s head, but in right center plating Feeney for the first run of the game.  After a short meeting on the with the pitching coach Doug Cinnella, Drapeau settled down and finished the inning without giving up any more runs.

The Eagles came right back in the bottom of the 5th.  Post University Eduardo Familia gets on due to an error by the third baseman. Jason Uliano hits a ball that is misplayed by the centerfielder for the second consecutive error.  The centerfielder then throws to third to get Familia, but overthrew it.  Familia attempts to score where he was tagged out. Uliano advanced to third on the play at the plate. Brian McKenna, then steps up to the plate, and on a 1-2 count, drives a solid single to left center scoring Uliano to knot the score at 1.  

In the bottom of the sixth, Nick Mascelli leads off with a groundout to third.  Then up to the plate came Kyle Cullen.  And this is the PBI Turning Point of the Game, Kyle turns on a fastball and drills a bomb to left field with his third home run of the season making the score 2-1. Cullen now leads the league with three home runs and has a batting average of .301 with 22 hits and 16 RBI's.

As the season is going through its stretch run, the North Jersey Eagles are determined to make it to playoffs, with only a 1.5 behind the fourth place team, the Staten Island Tide. 

Writer:             Deana Deo

Contributor:    René Miranda