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Box Score 2 LYNDHURST, N.J. – Felician College received solid starting pitching performances from a pair of dependable relievers, and two strong late-relief outings from members of its starting rotation, to claim victories in both ends of its Central Atlantic Collegiate Conference baseball doubleheader, 12-3 and 3-2, over the visiting University of the Sciences on Saturday afternoon at the Lyndhurst Recreation Complex. The games concluded 2014 CACC play for both schools.
With the victories, combined with other favorable league results, Felician (24-17, 15-5 CACC) secured second place in the CACC, and the bye into the main draw of the conference tournament that comes with it. The Golden Falcons move past the playdown round and open tournament action on Thursday, May 8, at Wilson Field in New Castle, Del. Felician ended up two games behind Wilmington (Del.) University for the CACC regular-season crown.
Following Saturday's second game, Felician President Dr. Anne M. Prisco helped honor the Golden Falcons' eight seniors – shortstop Aaron Brill (West Palm Beach, Fla./John I. Leonard); catcher/outfielder Jay Collazo (Wall, N.J./Manasquan); outfielder Chris Faber (Neptune, N.J./Neptune); outfielder Gabriel Fellin (Temple, Pa./Muhlenberg), pitcher Stephen Paladino (Staten Island, N.Y./St. Peter's Boys); outfielder Joe Petosa (Spotswood, N.J./Spotswood); pitcher Billy Rogers (Kendall Park, N.J./South Brunswick); and infielder Jordan Tackett (Fredericksburg, Va./Stafford) – in Senior Day ceremonies.
Felician out-hit USciences, 28-14, for the day. The Golden Falcons' six senior position players produced 22 base hits, led by Faber's 5 for 9 performance. Paladino was the winning pitcher in Game 1, and Rogers came out of the bullpen to record a strikeout to escape a bases-loaded Game 2 jam. Brill picked up his 200th collegiate hit in the nightcap, 131 of which have come in two seasons at Felician.
With Felician, ranked No. 9 in the most recent NCAA Division II East Region writers' poll, playing its sixth and seventh games in a five-day period, coach Chris Langan needed to become creative with the use of his pitching staff. Thus, Paladino made his fifth start of the year (against 14 relief appearances) and, in Game 2, junior Matthew Facendo (Hazlet, N.J./Raritan) began his first contest of 2014.
In the opener, Paladino (3-2) carried a two-hit shutout into the seventh inning. By that time, his offense had staked him to a 7-0 lead. Petosa stroked an RBI double in the bottom of the first, and Felician broke the game open with four runs on four hits in the third, highlighted by consecutive RBI triples from Brill and Scott De Jong (North Haledon, N.J./Eastern Christian). For Brill, it was his 10th three-bagger of 2014, tying him with Vinnie DiBenedetti (2008) for the Golden Falcon single-season record.
Sophomore second-baseman Ralph Caccavale (Massapequa, N.Y./Plainedge) produced an RBI single and later scored on a wild pitch in Felician's two-run sixth.
With a steady rain falling and his pitch count rising, Paladino faltered in the top of the seventh. The Devils (5-33, 3-17) reached him for three runs on four hits, including run-scoring singles by Matt Miniconzi (Blackwood, N.J./Highland) and Connor Lennox (Landenberg, Pa./Avon Grove). But Felician tacked on a run in the seventh and four more in the eighth before junior left-hander Jack Fowler (Shrewsbury, N.J./Red Bank Regional) struck out four batters in two scoreless innings to close the door on USciences.
Felician rolled up 19 hits. Petosa was 4 for 5 with three runs scored and four RBI, including a two-run triple in the eighth. De Jong (3 runs) and Faber (2 RBI) had three hits apiece. Facendo picked up his first career base hit as an eighth-inning pinch-hitter. Paladino allowed six hits, struck out three batters and walked one in seven innings of work, tossing 98 pitches. Dylan McHaffie (Georgetown, Pa./South Side Area) was 2 for 3 and scored a run and Pat Hiester (Sewell, N.J./Gloucester Catholic) tripled for the Devils.
The Golden Falcons used six pitchers in the nightcap, and they helped force USciences to leave 10 runners on base. Facendo (3-1) survived giving up five hits and six walks over five frames, yielding only two fifth inning runs.
The game turned in the bottom of the fourth inning. With two outs, Collazo broke the scoreless tie with a single up the middle to plate De Jong, who had reached on a hit and advanced on a wild pitch. Faber followed with a hard single through the left side. But when the ball got past the left fielder for an error, not only did De Jong come home, but Faber circled the bases for a 3-0 Felician lead.
In the road half of the fifth, Jay Andrews (Springfield, Australia) scored on a wild pitch with the bases loaded and two out, and McHaffie came up with an RBI single. But Facendo completed his outing and, as it turned out, the scoring for the game, by recording a strikeout.
Felician left the bases loaded without scoring in the sixth, but the Devils did the same, with Rogers completing the inning, in the seventh. After Lawrence Schoer (Manalapan, N.J./Manalapan) worked a perfect set-up inning in the eighth, CACC Pitcher of the Year candidate Jerry Vasto (Atlantic Highlands, N.J./Henry Hudson Regional) came on for the Golden Falcons and struck out two batters in the ninth to earn his first career save.
Brill, Collazo and Faber were all 2 for 4 for Felician. Devil sophomore right-hander C.J. Hertz (Magnolia, N.J./Sterling) (1-6) took the tough-luck loss on the mound, giving up one earned run on nine hits over 7 1/3 innings with seven strikeouts and no walks. McHaffie finished 2 for 3.
