Garden City, N.Y.- After a come-from-behind victory and a 13 inning heartbreaker, the Adelphi University baseball team split their doubleheader with Pace University this afternoon at William J. Bonomo Memorial Field.
Game 1: Adelphi 5, Pace 4
The Panthers found themselves in a 4-1 hole by the bottom half of the third inning, punctuated by a home run and a steal of home by Pace's Mitchell McCabe in back-to-back innings.
Kyle Olson and Tim Feliz both knocked a pair of singles through the infield to score two in the home third, which kept the game well within reach at 4-3.
After letting the first pitch from the Setters' starter Patrick Gleason go in for a strike, Feliz launched the next ball he saw into the trees in right-center field to tie the game at 4-all in the fifth inning.
Coming off his first career complete game last weekend, John Rizzo settled in after giving up his last earned run in the second, keeping the game knotted up throughout the comeback attempt. Rizzo finished after seven innings of work, giving up three earned runs and five hits on 92 pitches.
The winning run for the Panthers came in the next frame, when pinch runner Alex Rende came home on a wild pitch by Gleason.
Coleton Reitan came on in relief and grabbed his second save of the year, going the final two innings and retiring all six batters he faced. He also collected three strikeouts to extend his scoreless streak to 8.1 innings.
Gleason received his first loss of the year, falling to 4-1 and increasing his second-best in all of Division II earned-run average from 0.82 to 1.85.
Game 2: Adelphi 2, Pace 4
The home team got off to a good start in the nightcap, with Olson driving in Anthony Cipri from second in the opening inning to break the ice.
After being held hitless in the first two innings, the Setters' Anthony Labita got the offense going with his no-doubt home run to right field, tying the game at 1-apiece after three.
Olson brought home another after his deep double off the right-field fence gave the Panthers the 2-1 lead through five.
It was Labita again in the sixth coming up big, driving McCabe home on a single to right field that tied the game once more this time at 2-all.
Despite both teams threatening with runners on third base in each half of the seventh, Albert Ramos' drive to center field with two outs was caught on the run to send the game to extra innings.
The home team had a chance to finish it off in the 10th, when L.J. Bohne's bunt to third base was thrown home to Hunter Goldstein, who laid down the tag on Jack Wishner to preserve the tie.
It wasn't until the 13th inning when the scoreboard lit up again, as Nick Carminucci hit a fly ball that carried with the wind over the right-center field fence, giving the Setters a 4-2 lead.
The extra frames were highlighted by the relief pitching, in which Pace's Dan Brown pitched 7.2 shutout innings and allowed three hits with eight strikeouts. Adelphi's Jacob Pedersen started his work with two outs in the eighth, going 5.1 innings. He finished with two earned runs on three hits, as well as four strikeouts.
The Panthers will be back in action tomorrow (Apr. 8), when they conclude their four-game series with Pace and a long 10-game homestand at noon at William J. Bonomo Memorial Field.
