We are coming off another wildly entertaining season in Long Island college baseball. Here are my picks for the best player at each position. Italicized letters represent that the player led Long Island in that statistic. [soundcloud url=”https://api.soundcloud.com/tracks/208630454″ params=”auto_play=false&hide_related=false&show_comments=true&show_user=true&show_reposts=false&visual=true” width=”100%” height=’450′ iframe=”true” /] MVP: Jack Parenty, SBUCy Young: Jake DeCarli, LIU PostRookie of the Year: Andruw Gazzola, SBUC: Dan Parisi, Dowling: .351 AVG, 27 R, 52 H, 26 RBI, .415 OBP, .446 SLG, 7-11 SB, .972 FLD % Rob Vani, Adelphi: .336 AVG, 29 R, 51 H, 2 HR, 23 RBI, .864 OPS, 6-8 SB, .986 FLD %1b: Brenda...
Photo Credit: Michael Parchinsky Friday was a bitter day for Adelphi, LIU Post and Dowling, who all had their seasons end prematurely in the conference tournament. After upsetting the No. 1 seed Pace, Adelphi was defeated on Thursday and faced elimination on Friday. They staved off elimination with a 7-2 victory against New Haven in which John Thompson threw 6.1 strong innings to record his second win of the season. John Fogarty had three hits and Rob Vani drove in two runs. They advanced to face Stonehill for the second time in as many days and it did not go well. They were defeated 14-3 with 13 of those runs coming in the third, fourth and fifth innings. Kyle Garrison suffered his fourth loss of the season, he threw two innings and allowed six ER. The offense smacked 10 hits but couldn&...
Photo Credit: Dowling Athletics Dowling will return to postseason baseball in 2015. That became official with their 1-0 victory in the second game of a DH today against St. Thomas Aquinas. Neither team could get much going on offense. Entering the bottom of the sixth, it was a scoreless pitcher’s duel between Kyle DeMeo and Matt Kostalos. Jon Cruz got the Golden Lions on the board with a bunt single to score Michael Richter to break the scoreless tie.That proved to be the only offense needed for DeMeo, who threw 6.1 shutout innings, allowing five hits, four walks while striking out five. He improved to 3-1 on the season.He was relieved by freshman Dennis Buckstein, who has been lights-out from the bullpen this season. He threw 2.2 shutout innings with one strikeout to record his thir...
Photo Credit: Vinny Messana It was a huge double header against the reigning ECC Champion St. Thomas Aquinas, and Dowling responded to the challenge by sweeping the twinbill by the scores of 10-7 and 10-2.The first game was a 3:25 slog that featured 337 total pitches but Dowling persevered. Brendan Butler got the start and went six innings, allowing three ER while striking out two. Dennis Buckstein, Jon Parisi and Andrew Sesto combined for three strong innings of relief allowing just one ER.The Golden Lions were down to their last three outs but mounted an incredible rally–scoring five runs. Dan Parisi scored RJ Going with an RBI single to get them within two runs. Tyler Piccolo hit a game-tying two-run double down the left field line to score Tim Going and Michael Richter. Tyler Har...
Photo Credit: Vinny Messana Dowling stayed red-hot and won three of four games from Mercy College this weekend to improve to 21-9. We covered the win on Friday night, in which Cody McParland threw seven innings and the offense racked up 17 hits. They won the second game by the score of 10-5 on Saturday. Brendan Butler improved to 5-1, but it was not his most dominating effort of the season. He went 6.1 innings, allowing three ER on six hits and five walks while striking out five.Andrew Sesto came in and provided 2.2 perfect innings of relief, striking out four batters. Fortunately, the offense provided more than enough runs. They smacked 14 more hits–Tyler Piccolo had three while driving in two runs, while Vinny Orlando, RJ Going, Dan Parisi and Michael Richter all had two hits. Le...
Photo Credit: Vinny Messana When there is a pitching match up such as Jake DeCarli verse Cody McPartland, it is expected to be a low-scoring affair. Through five innings at Golden Lions Field, it was just that–with Dowling leading 2-0 thanks to an RBI triple by Jon Cruz and RBI double by Dan Parisi.McPartland, who had cruised through five inning with only 60 pitches, suddenly began leaving pitches out over the plate and the Pioneers were crushing them.Lou Doria doubled off the right center field fence to score David Groeneveld which got McPartland removed from the game in favor of Andrew Sesto. After a walk, Rick Alessi followed with an RBI single to tie up the game at two. Rob Andreoli hit a parachute down the left-field line for a two-run single to give the Pioneers the lead. They ...
Photo Credit: Dowling Athletics The fans have spoken! After 748 votes, Dan Parisi, Dowling’s senior catcher, triumphed over a field of five other candidates to be named MVP of March. The players were Jack Parenty (Stony Brook), Angelo Navetta (Molloy), Anthony Bonilla (St. Joseph’s), Mike Marino (Farmingdale) and Steven Foster (Hofstra). After one day, Parisi had garnered 68% of the vote and appeared to be sailing to the finish line, but overnight the St. Joseph’s crowd went to work. Bonilla not only closed the gap but took a nine-vote lead at 161-152. The Dowling crowd must’ve took it to heart because Parisi came back with a vengeance. He didn’t just close the gap, he didn’t just take the lead but he took a commanding 190-vote lead within two hours. He ...
Photo Credit: Vinny Messana It was a slow, but action-packed day for college teams. Despite only three teams in action, there was an extra inning game and a terrific pitcher’s duel. Division-I:Hofstra was defeated by Villanova 3-1. The offense only mustered six hits against opposing starter Josh Harris, despite drawing four walks and striking out only once. The Pride’s starter, Chris Bonk, threw eight innings, allowing three runs on 11 hits while striking out three.Villanova got on the board in the first inning on an RBI single. They added two runs in the sixth inning to open up their lead. The Pride’s lone run came in the bottom of the ninth on a sac fly by Eric Ferguson.The Pride falls to 7-12. The two teams will be back in action tomorrow afternoon.Division-II:LIU Post...
Photo Credit: Vinny Messana Dowling did some spring cleaning at their home field today in the form of a 12-1 victory over fellow Division-II Long Island program Adelphi. The Golden Lions wasted no time putting up a three spot in the first. Dan Parisi singled home Jon Cruz, executed a double steal which scored RJ Going and then came around on a wild pitch by Michael Tarpey (4 IP, 6 R, 4 ER, 1 K). They added one in the second on an RBI ground by Adam Schuster. He also sparked another rally in the fifth inning when he drove in Cruz with an RBI triple. He came around to score on Going’s RBI single and he scored when Tyler Piccolo grounded out to 3b. Adelphi got on the board in the sixth inning with a sac fly by Tyler Murphy to cut the lead to 7-1. The Golden Lions broke it wide open wit...