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| Photo Credit: Michael Parchinsky |
Friday was a bitter day for Adelphi, LIU Post and Dowling, who all had their seasons end prematurely in the conference tournament.
After upsetting the No. 1 seed Pace, Adelphi was defeated on Thursday and faced elimination on Friday. They staved off elimination with a 7-2 victory against New Haven in which John Thompson threw 6.1 strong innings to record his second win of the season. John Fogarty had three hits and Rob Vani drove in two runs.
They advanced to face Stonehill for the second time in as many days and it did not go well. They were defeated 14-3 with 13 of those runs coming in the third, fourth and fifth innings.
Kyle Garrison suffered his fourth loss of the season, he threw two innings and allowed six ER. The offense smacked 10 hits but couldn’t capitalize on their opportunities. John Fogarty and Rich Cambria both had two hits for the Panthers.
They end their 2015 campaign with a 20-21 overall record.
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| Photo Credit: Dowling Athletics |
Dowling, who entered the tournament as the No. 1 seed in the ECC Conference, had a two-and-out exit one season after being one victory away from the College World Series.
After getting shutout by LIU Post in the first game, they faced the University of Bridgeport. They were down 2-0 after three innings, when the bats came to life.
Dan Parisi hit a two-run single to center tie up the game at 2. R.J. Going dropped down a beautiful bunt for an RBI single to take a 3-2 lead. Going ended up scoring on a balk to increase the lead. Vinny Orlando executed a squeeze play to perfection to extend the Dowling lead to three.
It was short lived, however, and Bridgeport responded with a four-spot in the eighth inning to take a 6-5 lead off Andrew Sesto, who threw four innings in relief.
The Golden Lions went down 1-2-3 in the ninth to close the books. PJ Martino earned the victory for Bridegport.
LIU Post was on a high after their 8-0 shut out of Dowling on Thursday but the tides turned on Friday with a 4-2 loss to St. Thomas Aquinas.
Trailing 1-0 in the sixth inning, Kenny Daley hit an RBI single to tie up the game at one apiece.
The Spartans scored twice in the sixth off starter Dan Jagiello to take a 3-1 lead.
With the bases loaded in the eighth, it appeared the Pioneers were on the verge of a big inning when David Groeneveld drew a walk to cut the lead to 3-2 but they were unable to scratch another run across. The offense mustered only three hits and they faced elimination with this loss.
The next game against Bridgeport was an epic classic.
The Purple Knights took a 1-0 lead in the top of the third on an RBI single, but the Pioneers answered in their half of the inning with Kenny Daley’s run scoring hit off Vinny Iacono.
Both offenses would go ice cold for the next nine innings. The Purple Knights’ starter was taken out after 4.1 innings, and would give way to Martino. He threw the next 7.2 innings, allowing 0 ER and allowing only five hits.
The Pioneers starter, Connor McCarthy, did his best to put his team on his way. He threw 11 innings, allowing only four hits, one unearned run, walking one while striking out 11. He needed 136 pitches.
Dillon Burke came on in relief, and he had been outstanding this season, but it wasn’t his day. He allowed four walks, hit a batter and a base hit in 0.1 innings and he was tagged with the loss.
That closes the book on Division-II baseball for the season, unless Dowling is able to receive an at-large bid for the Regionals.
