Adelphi
Fall Ball Series Powered by Revolution Athletics: Adelphi University
(This is the third stop of the Fall Ball Series. Special thanks to Revolution Athletics for sponsoring this year’s series. Make sure to check them out here!) For as long as I’ve been following college baseball on Long Island, Adelphi has always been known for their strong pitching. Last season, a number of injuries impacted their pitching staff leaving them shorthanded to navigate through the ultra-competitive NE-10 Conference. It was their offense that kept them afloat, as they averaged an impressive 6.06 runs per game but were outscored by 29 runs on the season. They finished with an overall record of 23-23 (15-12 NE-10), and losing their playoff game against No. 2 New Haven. Their incoming class of freshmen certainly takes the sting away. From my vantage point, it has the po...
Where Are They Now: Nick Clark
(Editor’s Note: This article was originally published in January 2024) (Photo Credit: Cosmic Fox Media) When it comes to sliding door moments – this one might top the list. During his senior season at West Babylon HS, Nick Clark had already decided he wanted to attend Adelphi University to play basketball. His dream was to play in the NBA. Despite West Babylon’s outstanding team – they won the Suffolk County Championship in 1993 and 1994 – he did not have plans to continue his career after graduation. As fate would have it, legendary Adelphi baseball coach Ron Davies, was attending his West Babylon game to watch his teammate, Mike Rayola. Clark had what he described as his “best game of the year” and Coach Davies asked him if he’d be interested in playing baseball at Adelphi Universi...
GAME RECAP: Six-Run Second Inning Powers Adelphi Past Reigning ECC Champs
Winning 9️⃣ to 5️⃣ over the reigning ECC champs… What a way to make a living. RECAP 📎: https://t.co/cYUbCLgq3z#PawsUp🐾 pic.twitter.com/hIJObCQiDK — Adelphi Baseball (@AdelphiBaseball) March 12, 2024 On a beautiful afternoon in Garden City, the Adelphi Panthers came out swinging the bats against the reigning ECC Champs, Queens Knights. The Panthers used a six-run second inning to power past the Knights, who mounted a rally in the late innings to make things interesting, but Adelphi held on for a 9-5 win. Evan Christopher and Stevie Proko was the pitching matchup and the hurlers exchanged scoreless first innings before the Panthers’ bats woke up in the second inning. They put up a six-spot which effectively put the game out of reach. Alec Maag started things off with a single and he a...
Adelphi Poised for a Bounceback Season in 2024
Photo Credit: Adelphi Athletics (Special thanks to Metamorphosis Landscape Design for sponsoring the season preview series.) When you graduate 5 starting position players that all have All-Conference or All-Region pedigree, it is always a challenge. Adelphi had the luxury of penciling in 5 players into the lineup last season (Cooper Johnson, Tim Feliz, Kyle Olson, Antony Cipri and Mike Draskin) that were all fourth and fifth year players that had great success at the collegiate level. Sheesh 🔥 Mike Draskin crushes his 10th HR of the season to tie the game 5-5 in the fifth for Adelphi pic.twitter.com/hbJ0gn4Cm8 — Axcess Baseball LI (@axcessbaseball) April 16, 2022 “We have to replace five of the eight starting spots in the lineup. Those positions are wide open,” said Head Coach ...
Saturday College Recap (2/25) Powered by Orlin & Cohen
It was a very busy day for the local teams. Even some Division-III action got underway on Long Island. Here’s how it went down… Division-I: St. John’s 7, Tulane 3 E8 | 7-3 SJU Make it 12 Ks for Red Storm pitching tonight! @nickcirelli pic.twitter.com/zNSKCr0dCW — St. John’s Baseball (@StJohnsBaseball) February 26, 2023 The Johnnies won their second straight over Tulane led by 13 strikeout by the pitching staff. Joe Mascio started and struck out 10 over 4.1 innings, allowing 3 ER. He was lifted in favor of Tommy Finnegan who threw 1.1 innings of relief. The heavy lifting was done by Nick Cirelli who fired 3 shutout innings, allowing just one hit and 3 strikeouts. The offense was led by Paul Orbon, who went 3-for-4 with a double and a run scored. Marty Higgins had two...
OTD in 2019: Brian Cashman Speaks At Adelphi Fall Cocktail Event
Carle Place, NY– In what was a packed house at the beautiful Chateau Briand, New York Yankees GM Brian Cashman spoke candidly with Ed Randall, host of the popular radio show, “Talking Baseball”. There was over 400 guests in attendance and they were treated to an informative discussion between a veteran talk show host and the current GM of the most successful franchise in the history of North American sports. Cashman, a native of Rockville Center, came on at about 9:15pm which was directly after the news broke about the Yankees releasing Jacoby Ellsbury and designating Greg Bird for assignment. Here’s a few highlights from the discussion. Again, this wasn’t a motivational speech, this was a pretty in-depth conversation on a myriad of issues both past & present. Cashman, a graduate of Ca...
Fall Ball Series Powered by Baseball Lifestyle: Adelphi
Cooper Johnson comes through with the walk-off RBI single to propel Adelphi to a 5-4 comeback victory over St. Rose ! pic.twitter.com/5v1qCe1RA5 — Axcess Baseball LI (@axcessbaseball) May 10, 2022 Entering the 2023 season, the Adelphi Panthers have what head coach Bill Ianniciello called a “good problem” and that’s having to find at bats for some talented players. With the cancellation in 2020, Adelphi – like many collegiate teams – has an abundance of upperclassmen on the roster. But in the case of the Panthers, they also have a number of quality freshmen, sophomores and juniors that would warrant starting jobs on many other competitive teams in the region. The big loss, however, will be 3B Matt Alifano. The 2021 Axcess College Player of the Year followed tha...
Q & A With Matt Alifano
Adelphi has had a long history of excellence on the baseball field and even amidst that list of outstanding performers, Matt Alifano warrants inclusion with the best of the best. The Center Moriches grad helped the Red Devils to a perfect season in 2019 and kept that momentum going into 2020 when he started his collegiate career on a tear before the pandemic ended the season abruptly. It was in 2021 when he truly broke out for the Panthers. Matt Alifano’s first collegiate HR was a grand slam. The sophomore is batting .419 on the season pic.twitter.com/b3Z6yd4K9S — Axcess Baseball LI (@axcessbaseball) March 29, 2021 He batted .394 – which was the highest for a Panther since Rich Mejia and Cliff Brantley in 2014. But what separated him from the pack was his pop from the leadoff s...
Cooper Johnson’s Walk-Off Single Caps Comeback Win for Adelphi
“Bedlam in Garden City!” 🎙 pic.twitter.com/QSgF1oLDER — Adelphi Baseball (@AdelphiBaseball) May 11, 2022 Trailing 2-0 in the eighth inning and 4-2 in the ninth inning, Adelphi was facing the very real possibility of having their outstanding regular season minimized with a playoff loss at home against the College of St. Rose in a game in which their ace started. Fortunately for the Panthers, their squad was not about to let that happen. Mike Draskin (.405 AVG/1.267 OPS) came through with the clutch two-run single to score Matt Alifano and Jack Ryan to tie up the game in the bottom of the eighth inning. St. Rose answered right back with a pair of runs in the top of the ninth when LHP Steven Murphy hit the leadoff batter and walked the next. Freshman RHP John Rizzo came on in relief and St. R...
Adelphi Sweeps Season-Opening DH From Saint Anselm
Adelphi RHP Josh Rovner discusses the Panthers’ double header sweep over Saint Anselm. Rovner went 5 IP, struck out 6 and allowed just one run. Panthers won Game 2 by the score of 13-1 pic.twitter.com/OF1jkyTrfr — Axcess Baseball LI (@axcessbaseball) February 27, 2022 The Adelphi Panthers kicked off the official Bill Ianniciello era with a double header sweep against visiting Saint Anselm College on a typically cold February afternoon at William J. Bonomo Field. Here’s how it went down: Game 1: The Panthers sent ace Nic Luc to the hill. The fifth-year senior was greeted rudely by Ward Melville grad Brady Doran with a leadoff double. He came around to score on an RBI single by Zack Clough. That was all Luc would allow, though. He settled in and wound up striking out 9 batters ov...
Fall Ball Series Powered by East Coast S&P: Adelphi University
Tim Feliz batted .359 last year with a .609 SLG. He will be a huge piece of their lineup pic.twitter.com/L6GBkgTtlZ — Axcess Baseball LI (@axcessbaseball) October 27, 2021 Following a 4-7 start to the 2021 season, Adelphi basically needed a miracle to reach postseason play. They needed to get red-hot and get help from their conference foes. That is exactly what happened, as Bill Ianniciello took over at the helm for Dom Scala on April 14 and the Panthers turned their season around – highlighted by a 7-game winning streak to capture the Northeast-10 Southwest Division Regular Season title. In the NE-10 playoffs, they defeated AIC in the semifinal, 8-2, before advancing to face Le Moyne in the southwest division final. They defeated them, 6-4, in Game 1 before losing Game 2 to force a ...
Friday College Recap Powered by Orlin & Cohen
Division-I St. John’s lost the middle game of their three-game set against Villanova by the score of 7-3 to fall to 18-21 on the season. The game was tied 1-1 in the seventh before Villanova broke it open with a three-spot and then tacked on four in the 9th to open it up. Long Island-native Tyler Arella went 7 innings, allowing just 1 ER on six hits to earn his third win of the season. The Johnnies were held to just seven hits, with no player notching more than one. Tim Cunningham was tagged with the loss. They will look to avoid the sweep today at 1pm. Stony Brook stayed red-hot with a double header sweep over Binghamton. They clinched the America East Regular Season title. The Seawolves are now 28-16 on the season and 24-9 in America East play. In Game 1, Jared Milch was staked to ...
