With a small window to get the game in on Sunday, Adelphi made the call to schedule a matinee against St. Thomas Aquinas that had been originally cancelled due to the forecast.
And with a loaded roster and fresh pitching staff, can you blame them for being excited?
They continued the red-hot start to their season with a 7-2 victory over St. Thomas Aquinas. The reigning ECC Champs have stumbled out of the gate and the Panthers took full advantage; sweeping a mini weekend series.
Senior Mike Demarest got the start, he was the beneficiary of a four-run first inning by the Panthers offense that included an RBI single by Lawrence Cicileo (more on him later), a bases loaded walk by Tyler Becker and a two-run single by Lucas Terwilliger.
Demarest was terrific for four innings of work, he used two double play balls to end threats in the second and third innings.
The Panthers offense was not done, Brett Malm launched a solo shot in the second inning to extend the lead to 5-0 and Tyler Becker added an RBI triple later in the inning to open up a commanding 6-0 lead.
The Spartans threatened a couple of times.They scored a run in the fourth inning to cut the deficit to 6-1.
Sophomore Josh Rovner came on in the fifth and fired a scoreless inning. The real threat came in the fifth inning after a walk, a single and an RBI ground out made the score 6-2. After a walk, Coach Dom Scala opted to bring in LHP Mark Novello to match up against a left-handed batter, but Novello walked him on four pitches. With the bases loaded, he went to Nicholas Palmerini with the tying run at the plate. He coaxed an inning-ending popout to Becker, which allowed Adelphi to collectively exhale.
Palmerini escapes the jam by inducing an infield pop out to Tyler Becker. End of 6 | Adelphi 6, STAC 2 pic.twitter.com/BfGb7liqDW
— Axcess Baseball LI (@axcessbaseball) March 3, 2019
They padded their lead with a long HR to left by Cicileo to open up a 7-2 lead.
Palmerini wound up firing 2.1 innings of relief, giving way to Tom Ambrosino who struck out the side in the ninth to slam the door on the victory for the Panthers.
The silver lining for the Spartans was the performance by freshman Thomas Gregory, who fired four shutout innings of relief before allowing the solo shot, and wound up eating five crucial innings to save the bullpen from being further taxed.
Adelphi improves to 2-0 and will now head down to Florida feeling very good about themselves. They will be back in action on Friday against Barry University in Miami at 6pm. They will play 8 games in total on the Spring Break trip.
It’s very early, but they certainly appear destined for an appearance in the NCAA Regionals this season.
