Jefferson Baseball Drops Both Games In Their Home Opener

JCC baseball team has logged 20 games this season all as the visiting team, prior to today. It was a gorgeous day in Watertown, perfect weather for their first time stepping on the Alex Duffy baseball diamond. The baseball was hosting nationally ranked Herkimer College today.

Joshua Navarra took the mound for the Cannoneers in game one of the double header, and came out ready for the task at hand. Navarra was pitching well early on for JCC, keeping the bats of Herkimer out of rhythm through the first two innings, with only allowing 1 run and 2 hits. JCC wasn't able to find any holes in the Generals defense all game basically, as every hard hit ball they had, just seemed to find the defenders gloves. In the 3^rd inning, Herkimer finally found their groove and started capitalizing on Jefferson mistakes in the field and pitches, as they managed to score 10 runs in the innings. Micheal Worth hit 2 home runs in the 3^rd inning for Herkimer and Brandon Kruzinski also hit a home run. Herkimer went on to win game one with a final score of 16-0. Jefferson only managed 4 hits in game one. 

Game two started much better for Jefferson, Fraser Boyd took the mound for JCC to start the day. Boyd was dealing early on, keeping the hot hitting Generals off the scoreboard through 3 full innings. Jefferson was also trying to get their bats hot early on too, scoring two runs in the bottom of the first inning to take 2-0 lead. Hunter Holliday led off with a single, Jason Kavanaugh followed with a double and scored Holliday. 3 batters later, Naim Bibovic hit a single, to bring Kavanaugh around as well. In the top of the 4^th inning, Boyd started slowing down and losing command of the zone a little, and a couple of errors behind him in the field, didn't help his cause either. Herkimer was able to get 2 runs in the inning to tie up the game at 2-2. Jefferson was never able to get anything going after that productive first inning at the plate, and Herkimer was able to strand any base runners the Cannoneers put on the rest of the way.  Dakota Deasy came in to relieve Boyd in the 5^th inning and allowed 3 runs to extend HC lead to 5-2.  Naim Bibovic continued his productive day at the plate, hitting a double with 2 outs, and then scored one batter later when Zachary Scannell hit a single, making it only a 5-3 game now. In the 6^th inning, Jefferson ran out of steam.  Deasy took the mound to start the inning but quickly was replaced after getting into trouble. It took Jefferson 4 pitchers, to record 3 outs in the inning, as Herkimer had a break through inning. The Generals scored 10 runs in the top of the 6^th inning, to extend their lead to 15-3. And that would eventually become the final score of the game as JCC wasn't able to get any runs across the plate rest of the way. Hunter Holliday went 3-3 and Naim Bibovic went 2-2 for the Cannoneers.

Jefferson will now travel to Herkimer on Thursday April 26, to finish the 4 game series against the Generals.