Garden City, N.Y. -- A six-run ninth inning rally for the visiting Southern Connecticut State University Owls handed the Adelphi University baseball team a defeat in its divisional opener in Northeast-10 Conference play on Wednesday, 6-3.

Seven of the Owls' (12-4-1, 1-0 NE10) 16 hits in the game came against Andrew Sesto in the ninth, as the Panthers' (13-8, 3-2 NE10) closer suffered his first blown save of the season. The Brown and Gold pitched had previously contained the SCSU offense over the first eight innings, as the visitors left 14 men on base before exploding in their final at bats. 

The Panthers took a 3-0 lead in the game on a run in the third and two in the fifth, as Daniel Taggart, David Butler, Michael Tarpey and TJ Santiago combined for eight shutout innings. In the start, Taggart worked around four hits, a walk and two hit batters before departing after 4.1 innings, while Butler and Tarpey went the next 2.2 before Santiago made a rare relief appearance. 

After leaving the bases loaded against Cole Bryant in the second, the Panthers scratched a run across in the third thanks in part to the legs of Steven Withers. The junior walked to lead off on a 3-2 count before stealing second, his 10th of the season, to get himself in scoring position. Michael Cattani followed with an infield hit, which Bryant then threw wide of first to allow Withers to score the first run of the game. 

Taggart worked around another two singles in the fourth, before departing with two on in the fifth as Griffin Gara was hit by a pitch, Jim Palmer reached on Taggart's misplay and Nick Lambert walked -- but not before Taggart and Michael Stack combined to pick Gara off at second. He gave way to Butler, who recorded a strikeout, a walk and a line out to leave the bases loaded and put the count of stranded Owls at seven.

Stack singled to lead off the fifth, but after he was erased on a fielder's choice, Cattani and Brett Malm followed with base hits to double the Adelphi lead. The third Adelphi run scored as Eric Hassell beat out the double play ball at first base, as the throw went wide and down the line to score Cattani.

The Owls stranded three in the sixth, one in the seventh and one in the eighth against the crew of Tarpey and Santiago, but Adelphi was unable to add more insurance despite having at least one runner on in each of those innings as well.

That set the stage for the Owls' comeback against Sesto, as five of the first six batters singled to plate a pair, before Griffin Gara stroked the go-ahead two-run double to right and Nick Lambert's two-out triple scored two more to cap the comeback, as Adelphi went down in order in response in the bottom of the ninth. 

The Panthers return to NE10 action for a three-game series at New Haven this weekend, beginning with a double-header on Saturday, April 1 at 12 pm.

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About Adelphi Athletics:
Adelphi University joined the Northeast-10 Conference in the fall of 2009 and in the past seven seasons, has collected 21 regular season conference titles, 25 tournament championships, 33 individual crowns and captured the Northeast-10 Presidents' Cup three times (2013, 2014, and 2016), while winning five NCAA Division II National Championships.

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