 
Good Show, Dolphins
Staten Island Advance - May 14, 2008
The College of Staten Island's fifth CUNY Conference baseball
championship in six years was the most pleasant of days for this
scribe.
Not only was I able to enjoy the company of veteran Advance
columnist Jay Price -- a modest man who would be embarrassed if he
heard me calling him one of the writers, anywhere, that I admire
most -- for six baseball hours at Dolphin Stadium in Willowbrook,
but there happened to be an added bonus.
CSI and John Jay played some outstanding baseball.
For the record, the Dolphins two-timed the rival Bloodhounds, 3-2
and 8-7, to capture the CUNY title.
But numbers won't be what I remember most.
I'll remember the gritty play of CSI junior shortstop Anthony
Piccirillo, a CUNY MVP candidate who saved his best defensive effort
of the season for the biggest stage.
I'll remember the uncanny glovework of sophomore first baseman
Andrew Baio, who spent the spring making all of his infielders look
good if they managed to get the ball anywhere near his vicinity.
I'll remember the noble complete-game pitching effort of lanky
sophomore left-hander Pat Gale, who went the distance with CSI's
season hanging in the balance and taking a shutout into the eighth
inning.
I'll remember the tourney-clinching two-run single by senior
outfielder Matt Thompson, who admitted afterward that he had been
struggling with his swing during the tourney.
I'll remember senior right-hander Eric Waldhelm, who entered the
finale in the first inning and pitched 7 2/3 innings of the game of
his life. That 5-0 first-inning deficit turned into a 6-5 lead by
the sixth inning, and the Dolphins have Waldhelm to thank.
And, probably most of all, I'll remember the spectacular running
catch by CSI senior centerfielder Ray Valerio, who somehow ran down
a drive to deep left-center -- a play that was captured by Advance
photographer Hilton Flores.
It's only NCAA Division III, you say?
The Dolphins and Bloodhounds played like big leaguers in the CUNY
tourney.
And I had a blast watching it.
By Jim Waggoner
Reprinted here with permission
from the
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