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| Photo Credit: Vinny Messana |
Losing your starting pitcher to injury in the second inning is never an easy storm to weather for a team. Losing his reliever to an injury the next inning? Well, that’s just cruel. Still, the Farmingdale Dalers were powered by a five-run fourth inning to defeat Hicksville 9-4 in a Conference AA-I/II crossover.
“I told the guys after that injury ‘this is the time to overcome adversity,” said Farmingdale Head Coach Frank Tassielli.
Farmingdale’s starter Vinny Rice threw the first inning under the watchful eye of a handful of college coaches. After allowing a leadoff single and a walk, Hicksville shortstop Conor Reilly successfully bunted the runners into scoring position. Rice struck out the next batter and induced an infield popup to avoid any damage.
His offense got on the board in the bottom of the inning on an RBI single by Phil Dorso to get the Dalers on the board.
In the top of the second, Rice then faced one hitter before experiencing pain in his elbow and jogging off the mound.
His reliever came in an got into trouble. A leadoff walk to Matt Feaster was followed by an RBI double by
Cam Melville. Alex Pierce hit an infield single to advance Melville to third, but he was caught stealing for the first out. Rob Schurz hit into a fielder’s choice which scored the second run but that was the extent of the damage.
The lead didn’t last long—Farmingdale tied it up in their half of the inning on a 4-6-3 double play that scored Sean Turturro.
The Comets snagged the lead in the top of the third again. Leadoff batter Joe Sarniwalked. After an infield popup, Peter Cappel hit an RBI double to score Sarni to give the Comets a 3-2 lead. The next two batters struck out to end the frame.
Farmingdale’s reliever experienced pain in his arm as well and was replaced with Max Cohen. He set aside the Comets in the top of the fourth to allow his team to stage a comeback. That is precisely what they did.
The first four Daler batters reached base—Ken DeGruchy led off with a single up the middle, Turturro reached on an error by the second baseman and Matt Fierstwalked to load the bases. Cohen, the ninth-place hitter, dropped down a perfect suicide squeeze that ended up being thrown into right field to score two runs. The leadoff batter, Mike Lynch, followed with a suicide squeeze of his own, to score another run.
“Those are two guys that can handle the bat,” said Tassielli. “I almost did it a third time with the two-hole hitter,” he added.
The Dalers kept the rally going with a walk and a two-run single by Phil Dorso, which opened up the lead to 7-3.
After setting aside the Comets without issue in the top of the fourth, the Dalers tacked on two more runs to their lead in the fifth inning. With two outs and nobody on, Cohen was hit by a pitch to get on base. After consecutive walks, Dorso struck again with another two-run hit for his fourth and fifth RBI of the game. This made the score 9-3 and effectively put it out of reach.
In the top of the seventh, the Comets scored one run on an RBI single by Melville to cut the lead to 9-4, but that was it. The Dalers closed it out and improved to 3-5.
“We’re a very young, inexperienced team,” said Hicksville Head Coach Frank Ciaramitaro. “There is no substitute for experience. Some things are correctable as the season goes on…it’s a process,” he added.
With the loss, the Comets drop to 2-5 on the season. They are one year removed from a 14-5-2 season.
