March 12, 2006

Game One /Game Two

Augusta, GA - The Adelphi baseball team held early leads in two games against Augusta State on Saturday, March 10, but could not hold on, falling 21-11 in the first game and 15-6 in the second contest. With the losses Adelphi falls to 0-3 on the season, while Augusta State improves to 7-12.

ASU rallied for a 12-11 win in game one when freshman third baseman Jorge Virguez blooped a single down the righfield line to score sophomore catcher Jeremy Armstrong with the winning run in the bottom of the ninth. The contest featured 30 combined hits and eight pitchers were used.

Adelphi jumped out to a 5-0 lead in the first inning, knocking ASU starter Jon Hansen out of the game. The Diamond Jags rallied from deficits three different times, the last on senior first baseman Garrick McGrath's solo homer in the bottom of the eighth to knot the game at 11-all.

Junior centerfielder Kevin Kelley went 3-for-6 with two RBI and two runs scored.

Tom Cali paced Adelphi with a 3-for-4 effort with two RBI. Bill Melillo knocked in three runs and had two hits, as did Bryan Horrmann, Robert Calca and Ricky Nicholson.

Freshman lefthander Ben Dukes (2-0) picked his second win of the week with three innings of hitless relief. Junior righty Trey Williams came on in relief of Hansen to start the second inning and worked five innings, allowing six runs and nine hits. He struck out six and walked two.

Chris Lewandoski (0-1) took the loss for the Panthers, who used five pitchers in the game. Starter Chris Zinkiewicz went the first three innings, allowing six hits and three runs.

ASU fell behind early again in game two when junior starter Dustin Taylor allowed three first-inning runs. The Diamond Jags answered with a seven-spot in the bottom half of the inning and went on to a 15-6 victory.

ASU picked up a season-high 17 hits, including back-to-back homers from McGrath and Crews in the fifth inning. Crews and Fite had three hits each, while McGrath drove in three runs and finished the day 4-for-8 with five RBI and three runs scored.

Senior righty Justin Walker (2-3) picked up the win in relief. He replaced Taylor with one out in the second and tossed 5.2 scoreless innings, allowing four hits with three strikeouts and a pair of walks.

Adelphi starter Chris Palladino (0-1) didn't make it out of the second inning, yielding 10 hits and seven runs.

Robert Paccione and Michael Aliperti had four of the Panthers' 10 hits and Joe Maranino had a team-high three RBI.

Adelphi and Augusta State wrap up their four-game set with a single game Sunday at 11:00 a.m. at Jaguar Field.