Fontaine Posts First Career Win as AIC Blanks Bentley
Winter Park, Fla. - Freshman Dillon Fontaine (Amenia, N.Y.) scattered seven hits and struck out seven over eight innings to win his collegiate debut as the American International College baseball team posted a 7-0 victory over Bentley Monday at Alfond Stadium at Rollins College. The Yellow Jackets improved to 1-2 with their first win of the season, while the Falcons dropped to 2-9.
AIC scored what proved to be the game-winning run in the top of the fourth when freshman Louis Saunders (Garfield, N.J.) singled to leadoff the inning and scored three batters later on a single to center field off the bat of senior David Dest (Orange, Conn.).
Bentley threatened to answer their next time up as senior Joe Dorr (Wayland, Mass.) and sophomore Garrett Stenhouse (Warwick, R.I.) recorded back-to-back singles to start the inning and a sacrifice bunt from sophomore Brett Damato (Commack, N.Y.) placed them on second and third with just one out. Fontaine settled down after that, striking out freshman Tanner Bathel (Southwick, Mass.) and freshman Ricardo Sullivan (Wayland, Mass) to end the threat.
The game remained 1-0 until the ninth when the Yellow Jackets exploded for six runs to put the game out of reach. The big blow of the inning was senior Jason Rustico's (Plantsville, Conn.) bases-clearing double to right center field. He started the ninth inning rally with a leadoff single and later scored on a single through the left side from Mike Massery (Pittsfield, Mass.), who was one of the AIC runners to score on the Rustico triple.
Sophomore Billy Thompson (Brookfield, Conn.) pitched a scoreless ninth for the Yellow Jackets to finish the game. Sophomore Matt Boudrow (Dedham, Mass.) had an impressive performance despite taking the loss for the Falcons, allowing one run on three hits in seven innings. Freshman Alex Torres (Framingham, Mass.) was hit hard over his 1.2 innings, allowing six runs on six hits with a pair of walks.
Freshman John Shivo (Ayer, Mass.) finished 2 for 4 with a run scored for the Yellow Jackets and senior Jeff Rustico (Plantsville, Conn.) went 2 for 5 with and also scored. Dorr went 2 for 4 at the dish for Bentley.
AIC will next take on Rollins Tuesday at 3 p.m.