BRONX, N.Y. (March 25, 2024) – The U.S. Merchant Marine Academy baseball team had its best offensive day of the season by scoring 35 runs in doubleheader sweep versus the Lehman College Lightning at SUNY Maritime's Reinhart Field on Sunday. With an 18-1 win in Game 1 and a 17-3 victory in Game 2, USMMA improved to 6-8 while the Lightning dropped to 0-8 in defeat.
 
Game Link

• Game 1 Box Score
• Game 2 Box Score 

Game 1 saw the Mariners pound out a season-high 18 runs on 15 hits as the bottom of the lineup led the way. Senior Brice Garner (Fort Collins, Colo) drove in a career-high three runs out of the seven-spot including a two-run double. The eight and nine hitters freshmen Ricardo Olivares (Flower Mound, Texas) and Landon Troutt (Fairfield Calif.) drove in two runs apiece as bottom three in the Mariners' lineup batted in seven runs.
 
Senior Tyler Reistetter (Dickinson, Texas) came up a single short of the cycle in Game 1 by going 3-for-5 with five runs batted in. Reistetter followed an RBI double in the fourth and an RBI triple in the fifth with a three-run home run in the sixth to put the icing on the cake in the first game. The three-run shot was Reistetter's first homer of 2024.
 
On the mound, freshman David Cherwonuk (Chattanooga, Tenn.) picked up his first colligate win by tossing five innings of one-run ball. Cherwonuk struck out nine Lightning hitters while only allowing four singles. Senior Jay Piotrowski (Montgomery, Texas) closed out Cherwonuk's first win by striking out five in two hitless innings.
 
In Game 2, the Mariners kept the good times rolling as the offense picked up right where it left off. After a sacrifice fly by junior Travis Leatherwood (Catonsville, Md.) put Kings Point up 2-1 in the second, freshman Daniel Serna (Claremont, Calif.) doubled in Reistetter to put the home team up a deuce, 3-1.
 
Unsatisfied with just one three-run homer on the day, Reistetter turned a fastball around and sent it all the way to Kings Point for his second three-run jack of the doubleheader. USMMA's two-way player added an RBI single and two-run double in the later innings to pad Merchant Marine's lead. Reistetter on the day finished a combined 7-for-9 with two home runs, six runs scored, and 11 RBIs.
 
Like Game 1, the Mariners offense clicked all the way around in Game 2. Junior Jack Millen (Shelby, N.C.) contributed three RBIs on the strength of an RBI double and two-run double. Every Mariners starter drove in at least one run in the doubleheader as the offense grinded out 32 hits and 32 RBIs.
 
On the bump for Kings Point in Game 2 was junior Michael Monkevich (Gaithersburg, Md.). Monkevich nearly replicated Cherwonuk's outing by tossing five innings and allowed only one earned run. The Mariners' right-hander struck out four and walked none as he earned his first win of the 2024 season.
 
Up next for the Mariners is a home matchup on Tuesday, March 26 with the rival Coast Guard Bears beginning at 4 p.m. USMMA will be going for their third straight win overall as well as their third consecutive victory over the Bears. Live stats and a live video feed of the game will be available with links on the USMMA Baseball Schedule Page.
 
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