Fort Lauderdale, FL – The Adelphi University baseball team held off a late rally from host Nova Southeastern to secure an 8-3 victory in the 2015 season-opener this evening.
Adelphi (1-0) came away with 15 hits on the day that included a game-high four from
Vincent Sharkey. Sharkey also added two runs along with
Kory Cassara and
Michael Stack. Cassara and
Robert Vani each drove in two runs while
Nick Zito joined Cassara with three hits.
On the mound,
Jonathon Mulford earned the victory behind five, shutout innings with five strikeouts and just three hits allowed.
Michael Tarpey threw two innings in relief with a strikeout in his Panther debut.
Kavan Thompson led the Sharks (17-4) with two hits as the host notched seven on the day. Roche Woodard picked up the lone RBI of the day for Nova Southeastern.
The Panthers started the day with four straight singles that included Zito driving in Sharkey followed by Eric Hassel bringing in Cassara. Vani then capped off the inning with two-RBI double to right center to drive in Zito and Hassell.
Zito continued his performance in the bottom half of the first, teaming with Sharkey and
Rich Cambria to throw out Mario Urdaneta at the plate to conclude the inning.
Stack led the fifth inning off with a powerful base hit down to first base. After a Sharkey sacrifice bunt and a Cassara single, Stack was standing on third. During Zito's at-bat, Stack touched home thanks to a throwing error from Robert Baroniel, giving the Brown and Gold a 5-0 advantage.
After a brief rain delay in the sixth, Adelphi kept up the impact hitting as Cassara doubled to left field in the seventh to score two and increase the lead to 7-0. The double scored Stack and Sharkey who previously singled and doubled, respectively. Cassara later scored on a sacrifice fly to center by
Donato Signore.
Nova Southeastern looked for the rally in the bottom of the ninth, putting two across on a bases loaded error with one out. The Sharks later got another run with two outs on a bases loaded walk. However,
Nikolas Batas stranded three runners with a fly out to Zito in right field, making the final 8-3.
The Panthers and Sharks return to the field tomorrow for game two of this three game series weekend with a 1:00 pm scheduled first pitch.
