The Dowling Golden Lions defeated Queens College 4-1 in an ECC conference game to improve to 19-8 on the season. I was at the game and here are my takeaways..
- Tyler Badamo can pitch for my team any day of the week. After allowing a run in the first inning on a wild pitch, he settled in and dominated an overmatched lineup. He fired a complete game for the fourth consecutive outing and set a career-high in strikeouts with 17 and walked none. He allowed six hits, with the lone extra base hit coming in the first inning.
- He improved his record to 5-1 an lowered his ERA to 0.54. He threw 119 pitches and did it with remarkable efficiency (76 percent strikes) and showed the ability to throw four pitches for strikes. Early on, he was sticking to fastball-slider combination, but began mixing in curveballs in the third inning and by the sixth inning he was throwing more curves than fastballs. By my count, he only threw a few changeups but didn’t really need to because his fastball-curve was more than enough. He was able to command both sides of the plate but definitely utilized the inside corner more frequently.
- The Golden Lions offense was actually outhit 6-5. They scored all four of their runs in the second inning on two-run hits by Mike Rizzitello and Rob Costanzo. They benefitted from a dropped pop up by the second baseman to prolong the inning.
- The defense was very sharp. Despite only 10 balls being put in play, they made every play and are very strong up the middle with RJ Going and Andrew Abreu.
- Dowling is a fundamental team and they clearly have the deepest starting staff in the ECC which will make their path to the regionals virtually unscathed in my opinion.
