Conference opponents Farmingdale State and SUNY Old Westbury split two vastly different–but dramatic–games in a doubleheader today. Farmingdale out-slugged Westbury 10-9 in game one, while Westbury won game two, a pitching duel by the score of 2-1 on a walk-off walk.
Game one began as a pitching duel, Matthew Constantine and Trey Pizzutello shut down both side for three innings before the bats broke through. An error in the fourth allowed Farmingdale’s first two runs to come across, but a single by Christopher Reilly and a two-run homer from Domenic Palumbo got the Rams halfway to their final score.
Westbury came right back scoring four in the fourth on singles from Paul Rapoli, Carlos Balmaceda and Jesse Matos. They even took a two-run lead off Rapoli’s third single and RBI, and a double play ball by Balmaceda in the fifth.
However, Farmingdale wasn’t finished scoring another five runs in the eighth. Singles by Dalton McCarthy and Palumbo scored one each. Three more runs scored on a bases-loaded walk, a wild pitch and a ground out by Anthony Sirianni.
A fielder’s choice from Jesse Russo closed the gap to 10-8 in the eighth inning, and it looked like Westbury may come back when Tommy Ziegen crushed a lead off home run to left in the bottom of the ninth. Unfortunately for Westbury that would be it, as they fell 10-9 as Ryan Mallon earned his first win of the year on five innings work with two earned runs.
With 24 total hits, several guys had huge days at the plate in game one. Vincent Rice led all batter with four hits in five at bats, but Palumbo, Rapoli and Ziegen all had three hits of their own.
Game two was only scheduled for seven innings, but due to some terrific pitching it went a full nine. Farmingdale got on the board first with a sacrifice fly in the fourth from Palumbo, but again Westbury was right on their heels with one of their own coming on a single from Kevin Lao.
Besides that, the pitchers on both sides were fantastic. Adam Heidenfelder got the start for Westbury and went 4 2/3 innings, he only allowed the one run on one hit, but six walks led to a premature exit. Jason Espinal served as a bridge to Daniel Aguilo throwing two no-hit innings to keep the game tied. Aguilo earned the win for pitching the final 2 1/3 innings of the game while surrendering just a single hit.
On the other side, David Otero Jr. got the start after a rough relief outing in game one. He matched Heidenfelder with 4 1/3 innings of one-hit one-run ball, but whereas Heidenfelder walked six and struck out one, Otero Jr. struck out six and walked one. Game one’s starter Constantine actually returned to pitch the game’s final four innings, and while he was handed the loss, he did allow just the one run.
That run came off of a bases-loaded walk-off walk to pinch hitter Louis Sileno. Farmingdale had escaped a few other jams earlier in the game, including throwing the potential-winning run out at home on a terrific play in the bottom of the eighth. Ziegen scored both of Wesbury’s runs and was the only player with multiple hits in game two.
After the game Westbury coach Rod Stephan said “[These guys] are going to fight tooth and nail. You saw that today… When they put on a run in the fourth we put up a run right back. They’re going to go right at the other team.”
Westbury will have another doubleheader at home tomorrow, against the US Merchant Marine Academy. Farmingdale will travel to Baruch later in the week.
