Box Score
Garden City, N.Y. - The Adelph University baseball team fell to Queens College 4-3 in non-conference action at William J. Bonomo Field on Tuesday. The Panthers slip to 2-1-1 with their first loss of the season, while the Knights crack the win column and move to 1-5 overall.
For the Panthers,
Jacob Beard went 3-3 with a trio of singles, while
Richard Mejia and
Nick Zito each had a pair of hits and an RBI. Mejia's sacrifice fly got Adelphi on the board in the third and Zito blasted an RBI triple one batter later.
Adelphi sent eight pitchers to hill, beginning with
Mike Cranston, who went three innings and allowed three runs on five hits in the no decision.
Jimmy Milani,
John Bivas,
James McCormack and
Chris Pabisch each threw a shutout inning of relief, while
Jeff Andersen was saddled with the loss in 1.2 innings after surrendering the go-ahead sac fly in the seventh.
Joe Salanitri paced the Knightsby going 3-5 and scoring a run, and Danny Muller had two hits and pushed the winning run across with a sac fly to center field off Andersen. Jonanthan Russell earned the win on the mound, tossing six innings and allowing three runs on seven hits. Frank Kaplan secured the long save by scattering two hits and striking out three over three scoreless frames.
Queens took an early lead on Nick LoBello's RBI fielder's choice that plated Muller. Frank Duffy made it 2-0 by scoring on a wild pitch in the top of the third, and LoBello would pick up his second RBI after ripping a base hit to score Salatrini and make it 3-0 in favor of Queens after two and a half innings.
The Panthers struck back with three runs in the bottom half to push a 3-3 tie.
Brandon Stahl led off with a single to left field, stole second and scampered to third on a pitch in the dirt.
Rich Cambria then worked a walk, bringing up Mejia with two on and nobody out. The third baseman lifted a fly ball deep enough to right to plate Stahl, and Zito lifted one even deeper to right center, crushing a triple off the wall to bring in Cambria and make it a 3-2 game.
Vinny Gaetano capped the inning with a chopper to the second baseman that allowed Zito to score and tie the contest 3-3.
Adelphi had a chance to shattered the stalemate in the fourth after loading the bases with one out, but Russell buckled down and coaxed a strikeout and groundout to escape unharmed.
The fifth and sixth innings would pass quietly for both sides, but the Knights plated the eventual winning run in the top of the seventh. John Eyerman drew a leadoff walk, moved to second on a botched pickoff attempt and ran to third on Duffy's sacrifice bunt. Muller then skied a fly ball to center to plate Eyerman and give Queens the 4-3 lead.
The Panthers loaded the bases again in the eighth, but once again, the Queens pitching prevailed as Kaplan calmly posted a K for out number two and retired the side on a soft chopper back to the mound.
Pabisch came out to shut down the Knights in the top of the ninth and keep the deficit to one run, but Mejia's one-out base hit would be all Adelphi could muster in the ninth as back-to-back flyouts ended the game.
The Panthers return to action with a two-game set against regional foe St. Thomas Aquinas in Lake Forth, Fla., on Saturday and Sunday. The mini-series marks the beginning of a stretch of seven games in eight days in the Sunshine State before returning to Long Island for Northeast-10 Conference play.
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