by Danny Gatta
The day began with the Rams and Golden Eagles looking to advance to the winner’s bracket of the Skyline conference playoffs. Steven Szobesky got the start for St. Joseph’s, matched up against the Rams’ Matt Seelinger of Farmingdale State.
The Golden Eagles would win the game 6-3 in a wild twelve inning thriller.
Photo Credit: Danny Gatta
St. Joseph’s would strike first. After a walk given up by Seelinger, Joseph Calabrese ripped a triple to the gap in right-center, giving his team the 1-0 lead.
That was Seelinger’s only mistake of the day. He pitched great, allowing just three hits and striking out nine in seven innings of work.
The Rams answered in the bottom of the first on an RBI groundout by Brandon Snow. An infield single by Kenneth Johntry in the second gave Farmingdale the 2-1 lead. Anthony Gigante would later score after St. Joseph’s threw to second in an attempt to throw out Johntry, making it 3-1 Rams.
Farmingdale pitcher David Otero Jr. entered in the eighth and the Golden Eagles rallied. He allowed back-to-back doubles to Brendan Sullivan and Nick Girardi, cutting their lead to one run. Kevin Martinez would enter in an attempt to preserve the lead.
After issuing a walk to Calabrese and a wild pitch that put runners on second and third, a sacrifice fly hit by Bob Keating evened things up at three. Martinez successfully ended the innings by striking out Joseph Lynn.
The Golden Eagles bullpen was lights out in this game, especially in extra innings. Twice– in the 8th and 10th–they induced innings ending double plays with runners on first and second with one out.
Coach Parsolano had some high praise for the performance of his bullpen. “They were just outstanding, all of those guys. (Nick) Clemente held them down, (Mike) Catanzaro did a great job, and obviously Josh (Outsen) is one of the best pitchers in the conference. And having him fresh for 30-40 pitches or so was a home run for us.”
After a couple scoreless innings, St. Joseph’s broke it open in the twelfth. James Nakashian and Anthony Bonilla led off the inning with back-to-back singles to get things started. The Rams intentionally walked Girardi to load the bases with one out. Farmingdale’s Kenneth Simco walked Keating, the only batter he faced, to give the Golden Eagles a 4-3 lead.
Joseph Lynn then delivered a two-run bloop single into right field off Ryan Mallon, extending his team’s lead to 6-3. Outsen would end the game for the Golden Eagles, allowing just one hit over two and a third innings.
Fourth seeded St. Joseph’s will now play the winner of Old Westbury-St. Joes Brooklyn tomorrow. Coach Parsolano stressed how big this opening game win was for the Golden Eagles. “It was enormous. We needed this win today to prove to ourselves that we could move forward in this thing. Getting this game was a big deal.”
Top-ssed Farmingdale State will play the loser of Old Westbury-St. Joes Brooklyn later today at 4pm.
