Eagles Sweep Home DH with Tide, Get First Two Wins of the Season by Tom Terzulli          

With a loss, a tie and a struggling offense, the North Jersey Eagles traveled to Fairleigh Dickinson University for their first home doubleheader at the Naimoli Family Baseball Complex. The new scenery turned out to be just what the doctor ordered as the Eagles swept the Staten Island Tide with a walk off 3-2 win and a blowout 15-6 triumph.

With Saturday’s results, the Eagles get their first two victories of the season and improve to 2-1-1, while the Tide garner their first two defeats, falling to 3-2-1.           

In game one, the Tide got on the board with the first two runs of the seven inning affair. First with an Ivan Rivera sac fly to score Rob Dodona in the fourth and then an RBI single for Luke Hartman in the top half of the seventh.            

That brought up last licks time for the Eagles, who up until that point, were being one hit by Tide starter Thomas Ambrosino.

Matt Krupa led off the frame with a single and was pinch run by Tyler McAvoy. However, Anthony DeFrancesco grounded into the force out at second, leaving a man on first with one away.

After a wild pitch sent DeFrancesco to second base, a Brian Kelly base hit put runners on the corners for Austin Unglaub. He put an RBI groundout in play to score DeFrancesco from third to make it 2-1 Tide. Jimmy Huber, who pinch ran for Kelly was called out at second and Unglaub stayed at first with a fielder’s choice.

With just one out to play with, the debuting Cris Ruiz plated Unglaub with a double to tie the game.

New pitcher Sal Trancucci then surrendered a walk-off single to Luis Amaro that scored pinch runner Casey Dana and gave the Eagles a 3-2 triumph, their first of the young season.

The win could not have been possible without the play of winning pitcher Joe Cirillo. The righty went the full seven and allowed two runs on five hits, walked none and struck out eight.

The Eagles didn’t have to wait till the final inning to put some runs on the board in game two, far from it, as they jumped out to a 5-0 lead in the bottom of the first.

Shane Woeful led off the game with a solo home run, followed by a base hit and a walk from Bobby Shannon and Amaro.

After they were advanced to second and third respectively, Huber brought Shannon home with a single to make it 2-0 Eagles.

Next up, Kelly was plunked to load the bases for Jonathan Budesa. He reached on an error at short by Rivera, that allowed Amaro to cross the plate. Runs four and five came courtesy of a base hit from McAvoy, scoring Huber and Kelly.

In the third, Brandon Hanson launched one deep to bring the score to 6-0, but the home runs were far from done.

In the bottom half of the next inning, Shannon led off a string four straight one out blasts. He was followed by Amaro, DeFrancesco and Huber to balloon the Eagle lead to 10-0.

North Jersey stayed quite until the seventh, when the final five runs came home. Shannon led off the inning getting into second with a single and an error by the Tide third baseman Tyler Wincing. Amaro scored the right-handed batter with a single.

Dana then garnered his first hit in an Eagle uniform in grand style when he launched a 3 run homer, good for a 14-0 Eagle lead. McAvoy doubled home Budesa for the final score.

 The Tide put across their six runs all in the eighth and ninth innings.

 The Eagles hit seven homers in total (Woeful, Shannon, Amaro, DeFrancesco, Huber, Dana and Hanson. Four North Jersey players had multi-hit games with Shannon and McAvoy leading the way at three a piece, Amaro and Huber also pitched in with two a piece. Finally, three Eagles had more than one RBI. McAvoy and Dana had three each and Huber plated two.

 Not to be overshadowed, Angelo Spedafino got the win, tossing six innings of two hit ball, fanning four.

With their first two wins on the board, the Eagles see the Tide one last time on Tuesday, June 13th at Overpeck Park.