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| Photo Credit: Farmingdale Athletics |
It doesn’t matter what their records are, the two teams will always find it in them to play two intense and entertaining games.
The Farmingdale Rams and Old Westbury Panthers have met in the Skyline Conference finals in the past four seasons with the Rams winning all of them.
Still, the Panthers give the Rams a hard-fought battle each time and that continued this weekend as the team’s split a double header.
I was in attendance the first game and here are some of my observations of the two teams…
- After a rough first inning in which he allowed three hits and two runs (one earned), Alex Weingarten was dynamic. He possesses a great deal of toughness and composure on the mound. He attacked the zone and had command of his breaking ball. He gave up one run in the fifth on a two-out RBI single by John Pagan, and that put the Panthers up 3-0. He settled in and seemingly got stronger even as he tossed his 120th pitch to end the eighth inning. In the ninth, with two outs and nobody on he gave up a single to Jake Coners and a double down the left field line. He was clearly spent and was taken out after 8.2 innings, allowing 10 hits, one walk and three strikeouts. Both runs ended up coming in on a ground-rule double. All together, he did not dominate the Panthers lineup but showed that he’s able to dig deep and find ways to get outs.
- The Panther starter, Arismendy Nunez, went 7 innings and allowed two earned runs. He struck out eight and walked two. His only blemish was allowing the Rams to bat around in the fifth inning and taking the lead on an RBI single. Nunez has good command of his pitches and was getting the Rams to fish for offspeed pitches out of the strike zone. He kept Ed Bergmann and Mike Marino hitless (0-for-9) and they were the two leading hitters in the lineup. Anthony Alvino had a big two-run hit off him.
- Defense cost both teams runs, and ultimately it cost Old Westbury the game. It was a bizarre ending. After Danny Paccione hit a triple to right field (which was misplayed by the fielder), two intentional walks loaded the bases. A muffed suicide squeeze had Paccione in no-man’s land. After the catcher threw to third, Paccione broke home and the third baseman’s throw sailed wide to allow the winning run to score.
- The fact that the Panthers even forced a bottom of the ninth was impressive. They were down to their last out with nobody one and came up with very clutch hits highlighted by John Angelino’s ground-rule double which a) would’ve cleared the bases if it didn’t go over the wall and b) was still nearly caught by Ed Bergmann who is very quick but was moved in by the manager prior to the pitch.
- After the winning run scored, the pitcher bumped into the runner which caused pushing and shoving and the bench-cleared. Clearly there is no love lost between these two programs.
I was not at the second game, but Mike Dolce and Frank DiMaria both pitched well. Dolce threw five shutout innings and DiMaria 6.2 allowing one run. In the top of the sixth, Timmy Trimarchi allowed a three-run homer to John Pagan after Nick Yip was intentionally walked. The Rams responded with three in the bottom of the seventh to tie it with an RBI double by Mike Marino and an RBI single by Tom Rydzewski.
Alex DiSanto recorded the win and Jim Powers took the loss after his inherited runner scored on a sac fly by Jacob Coners off Dominick Morelli.
Two tremendous games, look forward to seeing this in the conference championship.
