When TJ Santiago is on the hill, the Adelphi Panthers are a tough team to beat.
The Panthers’ ace fired 5.2 IP, allowing zero earned runs with five strike outs in Adelphi’s 8-5 win over NE-10 rival New Haven.
“Fastball and splitter were the duo today,” said the Linden, N.J. native.
The Panthers offense got off to a quick start against Vincent Aprea (Comsewogue ’13) with a three-spot in the first inning. Eric Hassell ripped an RBI single to drive in Rob Vani. After the Panthers got an unearned run across the plate, Brett Malm drove in Brandon Morse with an RBI single.
Santiago was very sharp out of the gate, allowing only one hit through four innings.
In the bottom of the fourth, the Panthers broke through with four more runs. Kory Cassara smacked an opposite field triple to score Malm. Mike Smack brought him in with an RBI ground out to second base. Mike Cattani hit a sac fly to bring in the third run of the inning and Vani drove in Steve Withers with an RBI double.
The Chargers made it interesting in the fifth and sixth innings.
Nick Russo (William Floyd ’13) hit a two-run single and Jack Zagaja (St. Dominic ’13) drove in a run with an RBI ground out to cut the lead to 7-3.
The Panthers extended the lead to 8-3 with an RBI ground out by Malm in the seventh inning.
A two-run error by Zack Levinson brought the Chargers to within 8-5, but the save was locked down by senior RHP Andrew Sesto.
With the victory, the Panthers improved to 2-2 on the season, while the Chargers dropped to 4-1.
Adelphi will be heading down to Florida on Thursday to play 10 games in the warm weather.
