For the fifth consecutive season, the Old Westbury Panthers and Farmingdale State Rams will meet to determine the winner of the Skyline Conference. Just like the previous four, the Panthers will have to beat the Rams twice because Farmingdale enters the championship game unbeaten in the tournament.
To get to this point, the Panthers beat St. Joseph’s 4-1 behind Arismendy Nunez’s complete game gem. He allowed only three hits, walked none and struck out 11. For St. Joseph’s, Steven Szobesky fired a tremendous game, allowing one earned run in eight innings, but took the tough-luck loss. Kevin Licul went 3-for-3 with two RBI for the Panthers.
They lost a tough one 10-9 to Farmingdale, but responded with a 4-3 win against Purchase. They nearly allowed a 4-0 lead in the eighth slip away, but Alex DiSanto closed the door and saved Frank DiMaria’s second win of the season. He went 7.1 innings, allowed five hits and only two walks. The offense was led by John Angelino who went 4-for-4 with three RBI.
Farmingdale breezed through their first two games. They beat Mount St. Vincent 14-0 behind Alex Weingarten’s fifth win of the season. He went seven innings, and allowed only a single and a double, walked none and struck out five. It has been a tremendous season for him. Four Rams relievers combined to finish off the shutout. The offense was led by Richard Sullivan’s three RBI day.
They won the next game 7-1. Starter Mike Dolce held Purchase to one run but was taken out after 4.1 innings. He was relieved by Chris Dragone, who went 3.2 innings, allowed only a hit and a walk and was rewarded with the victory. The offense benefitted from four Purchase errors, but Kenneth Johntry led the attack with two hits and an RBI.
In the next game, it was a classic wild matchup between the Rams and Panthers. Farmingdale led 10-5 after six innings, but Old Westbury put up four in the seventh on RBI singles by Nick Yip, John Angelino and John Pagan. The combination of Dominick Morelli and Alex Pangourelias shut the door for the one-run win.
Kevin Cashman started for the Rams, but allowed singles to the first four hitters and was taken out. Daniel Tierney got out of that mess, but got into his own and was taken out after two runs in 2.1 innings. James Powers threw 0.2 scoreless innings, who was relieved by Timmy Trimarchi. He received the win after throwing three shutout innings. Kevin Martinez was lifted after one batter, and Matt Fick got one out, but allowed three hits and two runs, before giving way to Morelli. All together, it took eight pitchers to navigate through it for the Rams.
It was an impressive showing for both offenses. The Panthers compiled 19 hits; four each from Jake Coners and John Pagan. He and Angelino both drove in two runs. For the Rams, Richard Sullivan had three hits and two RBI, Danny Paccione had two hits and two RBI, and Ed Bergmann had two hits and two runs scored.
Expect some more wackiness from the teams today, who have exhaused tons of pitching to get to this point. I wouldn’t be surprised to see Weingarten start on short rest or Nunez.
