Box Score
Garden City, N.Y. – The Adelphi University baseball team scored four times between the seventh and eighth innings to post a come-from-behind 5-4 win over LIU Post in non-conference play at William J. Bonomo Memorial Field on Tuesday. The Panthers improve to 14-14-1 overall while the Pioneers drop to 11-14.
Chad Houghton sparked the Adelphi rally with a two-run pinch hit home run in the seventh to cut the deficit to 4-3, and
Nick Zito delivered the game-winning two-run single in the eighth to give the Panthers a 5-4 lead. Zito finished the day 3-5, while
Donato Signore and
Kevin Hutzel each singled three times as well.
John Campbell batted 2-3 with a sacrifice fly and
Richard Mejia drew three walks.
Ricky Van Allen earned his first collegiate win on the mound in 1.1 innings of scoreless relief, and
Dillon McNamara struck out two to earn his eighth save of the season and move within one save of tying the Adelphi single season saves record.
For LIU Post, Anthony Corona went 2-4 with a double and two runs scored, and Casey McKay and Kevin Chenicek both singled twice. Christian Stancavage suffered the loss in two-thirds of an inning of relief after his inherited runner scored on Zito's hit off of Bo Budkevics.
Adelphi saw plenty of chances offensively and left 13 runners on base in the contest, which allowed the Pioneers to pull ahead early. The visitors picked up two runs in the top of the second. Chenicek smoked a line drive back at starting pitcher
Nikolas Batas, which ricocheted off his arm and forced an early exit for Batas. Corona followed with a double, and an infield error scored Chenicek for the first run of the game. Rich Maccarone then laid down a well-placed suicide squeeze to plate Corona and put the Pioneers up 2-0.
The Panthers got one back in the fourth, beginning with a leadoff line drive by Hutzel. The catcher moved to second on a groundout, sprinted to third on a wild pitch and scored on Campbell's base hit in the hole between third and short. LIU Post extended its lead to 4-1 in the sixth, however, using three consecutive singles, two stolen bases and a sac fly to push across a pair of runs.
The Adelphi bats jumped to life in the seventh as Zito knocked a one-out single and Houghton crushed a clutch two-run pinch-hit bomb to make it a 4-3 game. The Panthers carried the momentum into the following frame and sent eight batters to plate.
Brandon Stahl roped a one-out double down the right field line and moved to third on a wild pitch, and
Anthony Zarrella and Mejia drew back-to-back walks to load the bases. Zito then pushed the hosts in front with a flare over the third basemen's head to bring in two runs and give Adelphi a 5-4 lead.
McNamara came on in the ninth to shut down the Pioneers. The senior closer worked around a single and a walk with two strikeouts to earn the save and stretch his shutout streak to 17.1 innings this season.
The Panthers look to expand upon their three straight wins when they head to So. Connecticut tomorrow for a Northeast-10 Conference Southwest Division contest at 3:30 p.m.
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