by Joseph Langan
With the sad news of season cancellations and the heartbreak of seniors across the nation due to COVID-19, New York Tech played one last set of games to end their season yesterday and today. Here’s how it went down:
NYIT took on Felician in game one of the two-game set in West Palm Beach, Florida yesterday afternoon. Unbeknownst at the time that it was their second-to-last game of the year, the Bears crushed the Golden Falcons by a score of 24-8. In today’s matinee, the Bears came out this afternoon and picked up right where they left off last night, cruising past Felician in-game two of the series 12-1.
Felician opened up game one by taking a 1-0 lead, a lead they would hold only until the to of the third. After that, the floodgates opened for the Golden Falcons seeing the Bears score 10 runs in the following three innings. In that time EJ Cumbo rattled off two extra-base hits and a single to account for four RBI’s, while teammate Ben McNeil accounted for two RBI’s of his own. Going into the sixth inning leading 10-8 after a four-run rally by Felician, NYIT would rattle off 14 unanswered runs and defeat the Golden Falcons 24-8 in game one of their short series.
Andrew Imperatore got the start, going four innings and allowing four earned runs, while striking out seven but walking five. He earned the victory, but Tech got relief appearances from Matt Carey, Joe Keller, Matt Bartnik, Zach White and Ariel Taveras.
Game two wasn’t much different for NYIT, playing in their final game of the season. Both pitching and offense combined for one of their best games of the season. Graduate Student Nick Tedesco opened the scoring for the Bears in the second inning with an RBI single to the right side. The offense never looked back as they scored 11 unanswered runs, four coming thanks to senior captain Ben McNeil. Pitchers DJ Masuck and Brandon Alberto closed out the game in the ninth and recorded what would be the last out for the NYIT season.
Graduate student Chris Mott earned his third win of the season in his final start. Throwing six scoreless innings recording five strikeouts and only allowing two hits in the game two victory.
Sophomore, EJ Cumbo had himself a day on Thursday going 7-for-7 on the day and recording five RBIs in game one. Cumbo ends his season hitting .375 with 13 RBI’s, certainly a great stat line and something to be excited about for next season.
Ben McNeil had a great two days against Felician, going 3-9 and recording 6 RBI’s between the two games. The senior from Commack should certainly entertain coming back for a fifth year, ending his season hitting .379 with 13 RBI’s.
New York Tech finishes the abbreviated season with a record of 9-5.
