QUALBEN K’S 9 AS PACE WINS SEASON OPENER,
PETERSBURG, VA – Pace junior David Qualben (Brooklyn, NY/Xavier) picked up his first win of the season as Pace won their 2006 season opener, 13-3, over Bloomfield College in a game played at the Petersburg Sports Complex in Petersburg, VA. Qualben struck out nine over five innings while scattering three hits and allowing one unearned run.
The Setters opened the game with a two-out rally in the bottom of the 1st inning. Jack Cawley (Bronx, NY/Iona Prep) doubled down the left field line. Matt Castellano (Staten Island, NY) followed with a single to left center, scoring Cawley with the first run of the young season, and advancing to second base on the throw to the plate. Matt Arburr (Bristol, CT/Bristol Eastern) then followed with a double to the center field wall, scoring Castellano. Arburr would score the Setters’ third run of the inning when Mike Pahira (Holmdel, NJ/Holmdel) reached on a fielding error by the first baseman.
The Setters tacked on two runs in the bottom of the 2nd when Chris Brown (West Kingston, RI/South Kingstown) led off with a single to center field. After JC Pullum (White Plains, NY/ Valhalla) popped out third base, Brian Hollrah (Glenwood, MD/ Glenely) doubled over the center fielders head scoring Brown. Cawley lined out to the leftfield gap and Castellano doubled to left center, scoring Hollrah for his second RBI of the day.
Pace would tack on two more runs in the bottom of the 3rd when Matt Bisbano (Mt. Kisco, NY/Fox Lane) doubled down the right field line. Matt McNichol (Staten Island, NY/Moore Catholic) singled to center field, moving Bisbano to third base. Bisbano would score on Brown’s ground ball to short. Pullum would follow with a line drive to right field, scoring McNichol from second base.
Bloomfield jumped on the board in the top of 4th inning. Web Zachery (Hamden, CT) reached on an error when his line drive was dropped by Pullum at second base. Peter Dziopa (Clifton, NJ) followed with a single, moving Zachery to third base. After Qualben struck out Eric Tanis (Pequannock, NJ) and got Nicolas Cucchiarella (Katonah, NY) to fly out, Edwin Pagan (Burlington, NJ) singled to score Zachery to cut the Pace lead to 7-1, heading into the bottom of the 4th.
In the bottom of the fourth, Bobby Beyer (Edison, NJ) relieved Bernardo Aviles (Clifton, NJ). Beyer struck out Hollrah to start the inning, but walked Cawley. After Cawley stole second base and Castellano grounded out, Arburr follow with his second RBI double of the day, scoring Cawley. Pahira would follow with a single to right field, scoring Arburr from second base to give Pace a 9-1 lead heading to the top of the 5th.
In the bottom of the 5th, Brown doubled down the leftfield line and was driven in on a ground ball by Hollrah to shortstop. Hollrah reached on a hit, but advanced to third, scoring brown, a throwing error by Lino Mariot (Perth Amboy, NJ).
Qualben was lifted in the top of the sixth and relieved by Dustin Corbett (Vestal, NY/Vestal). Qualben pitched five solid innings, scattering three hits while allowing one unearned run and striking out nine. Qualben also walked three batters over five innings. Dziopa reached base and advanced to second to lead off the 6th after his fly ball was dropped by Hollrah in centerfield. Dziopa advanced to third on Tanis’ groundout to shortstop. After Cucchiarella walked to put runners on the corners, Dziopa scored on a wild pitch by Corbett, that also moved Cuccciarella to second base. After Corbett struck out Pagan, Randy Singer (Lenape, NJ) pinch hit for Alex Munoz (Perth Amboy, NJ). Munoz hit a slicing line drive to right field, but was stole of base hit and RBI when Cawley made an outstanding sliding catch in shallow right field.
Castellano go the run back for Corbett, blasting Beyer’s first offering of the inning for a homerun over the leftfield fence. The homerun was Castellano’s first of the year, and his fourth of his career. Arburr would follow with his third hit of the day, a single to right center field. Pahira would also single, past the thirdbase man, and both would move up a base on a fly out by Joe Barracato (Westbury, NY/ Clarke).
In the 7th inning, Sunil Brijlall’s (Buchanan, NY/Henry Hudson) double over the centerfiielder’s head scored Hollrah and moved Cawley to third base. Arburr drove in his third run of the day on a groundout to second base, scoring Cawley.
After Corbett was relieved by Tommy Parry (Wayne, PA/ Conestoga), Dziopa drove Parry’s first pitch of the season to deep right centerfield for a double. Ed Gryeski (Manville, NJ) followed with a single to the hole between short and third. Jose Pozo (Newark, NJ) grounded out to second base to move Dziopa and Gryseski over with two outs. Parry was able to strikeout Greg Norman (Hollywood, FL) to end of the inning, holding the Deacons scoreless.
For the game, Castellano and Arburr were both 3-for-4 driving in three runs while Castellano hit the first homerun of the year for the Setters and Arburr had two singles. In all, 10 different Setters picked up hits in the game, with seven collecting multi-hit games as Pace totaled 13 runs on 19 hits.
The Setters failed to score in the bottom of the 8th,
the only inning Pace did not score in. Pace improves to 1-0
while Bloomfield goes to 0-5 on the season.