Two years ago the Adelphi Panthers were on the brink of the Divison-II College World Series, before dropping a pair to Southern Connecticut in the Regionals to have their dreams thwarted.
Since then, they have played sub .500 ball. Most recently, they had their 2013 season ended in the first-round of the playoffs by No. 1 ranked New Haven (30-13) by the score of 5-0. The Panthers were held to three hits by the New Haven staff.
Pat Simone (6-1) tossed the first six innings, allowing only two hits and three walks (his eighth of the season) while fanning three. John Melville and Peter Jay closed out the Panthers.
Their offense was led by Andrew Johnson who finished 1-for-3 with three RBI on the day. He drove in runs on a sacrifice fly and a two-run single.
For the Panthers, Steven Bove tossed 4.1 innings, allowing five earned runs. He had a largely successful season, but dropped his record evened to 3-3 on the year. Jeff Andersen relieved him and added 1.2 shutout innings. Dillon McNamara did his part in firing two shutout innings and finishing his season with 31 innings while yielding only one run.
Adelphi certainly did not reach their goal of returning the NE-10 title to Garden City, NY but they were able to make the playoffs in a year which they fielded several underclassmen and new additions.
The offense, which had previously been stellar all season, let them down in the playoff loss, will now need to find a way to replace the production of senior captain Anthony Zarrella who led the team in numerous categories.
