Box Score
Garden City, N.Y. - The Adelphi University baseball team held off a persistent Concordia College squad and pulled out a 7-6 win in non-league action at William J. Bonomo Field on Friday. The Panthers extend their win streak to four games and improve to 7-5-1 overall, while the Clippers move to 4-7 on the season.
Vincent Sharkey snapped a 4-4 tie in the seventh inning with a bases-loaded, two-out RBI single that sparked a three-run rally and gave Adelphi just enough of a lead to hold on for the win. Concordia refused to go down quietly and forged a two-run charge in the ninth, but
Dillon McNamara slammed the door for the Panthers to earn the one-out save.
Vinny Gaetano led Adelphi hitters with a 3-5 day that included two RBI and a stolen base.
Nick Zito went 2-5 with an RBI triple,
John Campbell and
Chad Houghton each singled twice, and
Donato Signore singled, walked, drove in a run and scored once.
Anthony Zarrella saw his seven-game hitting streak snapped but still managed to pick up two RBI with a sacrifice fly and bases-loaded walk to improve his team-best on-base percentage to .561.
On the mound,
Jonathon Mulford was in line for the win but a game-tying sacrifice fly in the seventh allowed his inherited runner to score and scratched his name from the box score. The freshman turned in 6.1 innings of work in his third collegiate start, allowing three earned runs on six hits while walking one and striking out three.
Vincent Caputo picked up the win in 1.2 innings of relief and escaped without an earned run despite giving up the game-knotting sac fly, and McNamara K'd the final out to get his third save of the season.
For Concordia, Joe Gallub went 3-4 with three RBI, two runs scored and a stolen base. The Clippers' number three hitter tied the game 1-1 with a single in the third, tied the game again in the seventh with a sac fly and knocked another RBI base hit in the ninth to pull Concordia within two runs and keep the game alive. Michael Barbetto batted 2-5 with an RBI and Louis Gonzalez ripped a one-run double in the top of the ninth. Starter Ian Cole pitched 5.1 innings in the no-decision and allowed four runs on nine hits, while Chris Rodriguez was branded with the loss without surrendering a hit after two walks and a pair of errors brought in Chris Pena, who gave up the go-ahead single to Sharkey.
The seventh frame proved to be the deciding factor as the Panthers cracked open a three-run rally with two outs after the Clippers tied the game with two runs in the top of inning. With one away, Zito reached on an infield error but was quickly erased on a pickoff play.
Kevin Hutzel managed to get on by another defensive miscue, and
Brandon Stahl worked a pinch-hit walk to put runners on first and second. Campbell watched ball four go by to load the bases and Concordia signaled for Pena from the pen. Sharkey would greet Pena with the go-ahead base hit to left to score pinch runner
Ray Triano, and Signore followed with another base hit to make it 6-4. Zarrella waited patiently to draw a bases-loaded walk - the third free pass of the inning - and force home another run to make it 7-4.
Concordia caused trouble for the Panthers in the ninth and threatened to erase the hosts' three-run lead after Gallub and Gonzalez smacked back-to-back RBI hits, but McNamara nailed down the win by striking out the final batter with the tying run on third.
Adelphi returns to action tomorrow when the Panthers host Saint Anselm College in the team's first Northeast-10 Conference doubleheader beginning at 12 p.m.
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