It’s not often that the No. 1 seed has to face a seasoned and battle-tested No. 8 seed such as Franklin Pierce. The host Adelphi Panthers dropped the first round of the NCAA Division-II East Regional, 4-3, to the NE-10 Champions.
In front of a packed house at William J. Bonomo Field the top-seeded Panthers fell behind 2-0 in the second inning on a two-run double by Jonel Ozuna to put the Ravens ahead 2-0. This came after a dominant first inning for Baram who blew 91 MPH fastballs past two of the first three batters in a 1-2-3 inning.
In the bottom of the fourth, Lucas Terwilliger got the Panthers on the board with an RBI single to cut the deficit in half.
The Panthers missed several run-scoring opportunities in this game, failing to capitalize on five Ravens’ errors.
It was a miscue by Ed Baram that got the third run for the Ravens. The RHP with the lowest Division-II ERA in the nation fielded a dribbler along the third base line and threw wildly to first base to allow a run to score but Thomas Colombo was able to make a perfect throw home to prevent a second run from scoring.
In the top of the seventh, a wild pitch by Mark Novello allowed Brad Roberto to score to extend the lead to 4-1, which wound up playing a major part of this game.
In the bottom of the ninth inning, the Panthers mounted a rally. Brad Malm and Thomas Colombo both singled to bring the tying run to the plate. A ground ball to third–which could’ve been a double play–was dropped at second base to allow all runners to reach safely. With one out and the bases loaded, Lucas Terwilliger reached on a force out which allowed the Panthers to score their second run. The following batter, Tim O’Connor tipped a single to center to score Mike Cattani and cut the deficit to 4-3.
Sophomore catcher Jack Ryan stepped to the plate. He got into one to right field and for a moment it appeared it could be trouble but the right fielder was able to make the play to end the rally and seal the victory for the Ravens.
Baram wound up throwing 6.2 innings, striking out 10 and allowing two ER on four hits and getting tagged with the loss.
Adelphi will face the loser of NYIT-Wilmington at 12pm tomorrow. They will now need to win four consecutive elimination games if they are to advance to the Division-II College World Series.
