Brookville, N.Y. - After a week in Florida, the Adelphi University baseball team had a winning return to Long Island, defeating local opponent LIU Post, 10-6, on Monday evening.
A six-run and three-hit seventh inning allowed Adelphi (7-6-1) to claim the victory over their neighboring competition in non-league action.
Adelphi got on the board in the second inning, following a double down the right field line by Thomas Colombo, who brought home Tim O'Connor. O'Connor, in his rookie campaign, reached on a double down the left field line.
The Panthers held LIU scoreless by the hand of Daniel Taggart, in the bottom half of the inning, and managed to tack on three more runs in the third. With Steven Withers and Michael Cattani on base, a single by Brandon Morse and a double by Tyler Becker gave Adelphi a 4-0 lead.
Despite the four-run deficit, the Pioneers were able to tie the game at four-all by the fourth inning. The rally began with a run scored off a wild pitch before Taggart struck out Joe Spitaleri swinging to conclude the third. However, the hosts answered in the next inning scoring three runs off an RBI base hit, a sac fly and a triple down the right field line.
The following two innings remained silent for both teams, until Adelphi regained the lead in the seventh when they scored all six of its final runs. Things kicked off with two RBI singles from the bat of Withers and Jonathan Iadevaia, followed by a run walked in with Morse at-bat. Becker tallied an RBI ground out to the shortstop, extending the the Panther lead to 8-4. A throwing error by Post's third basemen, and a sacrifice fly from Colombo, brought Adelphi to double-digit runs and a lead of six over the Pioneers.
LIU saw hope in the bottom of the eighth inning, scoring two runs on a homer by Anthony Vaglica, but David Butler closed the contest holding the home team to six runs. Taggart claimed his first win of the season, pitching seven of nine innings and striking out five along the way.
The Brown and Gold will return to action on Thursday against Mercy College. The road contest is scheduled for 3 p.m. Check aupanthers.com and follow the team on twitter (@AdelphiBaseball) to learn of any schedule changes due to inclement weather.
About Adelphi Athletics
Adelphi University joined the Northeast-10 Conference in the fall of 2009, and in the past eight seasons, has collected 25 regular season conference titles, 26 tournament championships, 33 individual crowns and captured the Northeast-10 Presidents' Cup four times (2013, 2014, 2016 and 2017), while winning six NCAA Division II National Championships.
For the latest on Adelphi University Athletics, follow the Panthers at www.aupanthers.com or via social media on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, YouTube, and Snapchat.
