Written by Michael Parchinsky
The Adelphi Panthers got back to .500 with a 12-0 non-conference win against Caldwell University. They smacked 19 hits in this affair–with three each by Steven Withers, Zach Levinson and Alex Zykoff. The latter drove in five runs.
“It was a great confidence booster before playoffs.” said freshman catcher, John Lusardi. “It was a nice day to work on things before a very important weekend coming up.” The Panthers have a two game set this weekend against the College of Saint Rose, before the playoffs start
The day started on a funny note when there were technical difficulties that caused the National Anthem to not play over the loud speakers. This prompted the players from both teams to engage in their own rendition of the song, which was possibly better than any speaker could play.
The game started with a quick 1-2-3 inning in which Panthers pitcher, Mike Ceparano set down the first three batters of the Cougars order. The Panthers lead off hitter, Kory Cassara struck out looking on a great curve by opposing pitcher, Mike Sheridan. Ray Triano started off the hitting in that inning with a double down the left field line off of Rich Evaniecki, the Cougars third baseman’s, glove. Triano scored off a single by Nick Zito that squirted under the diving second baseman, Will Levier. Zito advanced to second off a single down the left field line by Rob Vani. Zito then advanced to third on a botched pickoff play by the Cougars defense. Zito scored on a sacrifice fly to left field by Alex Zykoff. The inning ended with a put out by Sheridan.
Ceparano began the second with a strike out then gave up a single to left center, to Noah Clarke. Levier got himself out via a batters interference. The inning ended with a harmless walk and a fly out to right field by right fielder Mike LaTorraca. Steven Withers began the inning for the Panthers with a leadoff single past a diving first baseman. Rich Cambria failed to move him over with a poop up bunt that was caught by the catcher, Justin Jeanette. Cassara reached base via bloop single to shallow left center field. Witheres scored off a sac fly to center. Zito grounded out to shortstop to end the
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| Photo Credit: Vinny Messana |
inning.
The Cougars went down in order in the top of the third. Vani reached base in the bottom of the third to start the inning off. He reached second via an error by center fielder, Ryan Rivera. Zykoff brought home Vani via a triple to the left center field gap. John Fogarty brought in Zykoff via a sac fly center field. Levinson got aboard with a single up the middle. Next, Withers got a single past the shortstop who was covering second. The Cougars walked the bases loaded, the walked in a run. The inning ended without any more damage on the part of the Panthers. The fourth inning was another quick inning for the Cougars offensive efforts.
The Panthers broke it open with a four-run third. Zykoff hit a triple to score Rob Vani, Fogarty hit a sac fly to score Zykoff, Cassara walked with the bases loaded and Steve Withers scored on an error off the bat of Ray Triano.
Levier led off the inning for the Cougars with a strike out, looking. The inning continued with back-to-back singles by Jeanette and LaTorraca. They each advanced via a wild pitch. The inning ended with a fly to center and a swinging strike out. After a concerning incident which included a Cougar bench player being struck by a foul ball, Cassara lined out to third. Triano hit a double to left field and the advanced to third on a single by Zito. He advanced on a walk by Vani. Zykoff struck again, slamming a double into center which scored all three men on base, but was tagged out when he tried advancing to third. The Panthers lead was extended to 11-0 after five.
The sixth went quickly for the Cougars again, as they popped out to third, struck out swinging, and got together a walk and single to move men to second and third. The inning ended without incident when Joe Peteya struck out looking. The bottom of the sixth went by without incident for the Panthers as they went down with only an infield single by Cambria. The seventh inning went by without any action from either side. The top of the eight started out with a walk to Rivera. Bernstein grounded into a fielder’s choice at short. After a walk to Caruso, the Cougars had men on second and third, but they couldn’t muster any offence as they struck out and grounded out to short to end the inning.
Tyler Murphy started the Panthers half of the inning with a ground out to short. Levinson then walked and scored on a double to the left center gap by Withers. The Panthers would not add on any more runs, as they popped out and struck out to end the inning. The Cougars began the ninth inning with a walk to Richard Metro. That’s all the Cougars would muster for the game, as they went down in order following the walk.
The game ended in a score of 12-0 in favor of the Panthers. The boys of Adelphi mustered a whopping 19 hits in the game, as compared to the Cougars six.
