Box Score 1 |
Box Score 2 LYNDHURST, N.J. – The Felician College baseball team hosted a pair of non-conference contests against different opponents from Rockland County, New York, on Thursday at the Lyndhurst Recreation Complex. The Golden Falcons defeated Dominican (N.Y.) College, 7-1, in a matinee before falling to regionally-ranked St. Thomas Aquinas College, 6-4, on Thursday night.
Against fellow Central Atlantic Collegiate Conference member Dominican, Felician junior left-handed pitcher Jack Fowler (Shrewsbury, N.J./Red Bank Regional) combined with three relievers on a six-hitter. Fowler (7-2) allowed one run on five hits over six frames. He struck out eight Charger hitters while walking two.
With another game on Friday and their CACC playoff opener scheduled for Saturday, the Chargers used four pitchers for two innings apiece. Junior righty Anthony Pastrana (College Point, N.Y./Xaverian) started and hurled two hitless stanzas, but Felician reached Dominican's second pitcher of the game, Peter Martinez (White Plains, N.Y./White Plains) (4-4) for four third-inning runs.
Korey McGuiness (Jackson, N.J./Jackson Liberty) led off the home half of the third with a single. Consecutive bunt hits by Ralph Caccavale (Massapequa, N.Y./Plainedge) and Gabriel Fellin (Temple, Pa./Muhlenberg) loaded the bases. One out later, CACC RBI leader Scott De Jong (North Haledon, N.J./Eastern Christian) drove in all three runners with a triple to left-center field. De Jong scored almost immediately thereafter on a Martinez balk.
Fellin reached on another bunt single in the fourth inning. It was the 100th base hit in his two seasons with the Golden Falcons, making him the 23rd member of Felician's 100-hit club in the 15-year history of the program. Felician left the bases loaded that inning without scoring.
The Chargers snapped the shutout on an RBI single by Leonardo Bravo (Bronx, N.Y./St. Raymond's) in the top of the sixth, but Fowler escaped a bases-loaded jam without further damage. Felician then tacked on two runs in the bottom of the inning when Caccavale looped an RBI double down the left-field foul line and later scored on a throwing error.
The Golden Falcons received a scoreless inning each from right-handers Lawrence Schoer (Manalapan, N.J./Manalapan) and Billy Rogers (Kendall Park, N.J./South Brunswick) before southpaw Joe Schultheis (Bethpage, N.Y./Bethpage) worked a hitless ninth. Caccavale finished 3 for 4 with two runs scored and two RBI.
The night game matched St. Thomas Aquinas, the No. 5 team in the most recent NCAA Division II East Region writers' poll, with the Golden Falcons, the ninth-ranked team in the same poll. The Spartans' victory was keyed by their four-run first inning. After receiving RBI singles from Kenny Kirshner (Cornwall-on-Hudson, N.Y./Cornwall Central) and Stanley Susaña (Puerto Plata, Dominican Republic/Cardinal Hayes), STAC tallied a third run on a Felician fielding error. A run-scoring single by Nick D'Angelo (Mount Sinai, N.Y./Mount Sinai) capped the rally.
Felician allowed another unearned run in the fifth to fall behind by five before mounting a comeback. Jay Collazo (Wall, N.J./Manasquan) singled home a run in the sixth, but a subsequent Golden Falcon rally was snuffed out by a double play. Chris Faber (Neptune, N.J./Neptune) doubled in a run with none out in the seventh before being left stranded.
In the eighth, Felician freshman third-baseman J.R. Meneses (Lake Worth, Fla./Zion Lutheran) came through with a two-out RBI single, and a second run scored on a throwing error to pull the hosts to within 5-4. But STAC closer C.J. Ferriggi (Belllmore, N.Y./Kellenberg Memorial) came on from his third-base position to record a strikeout and end the inning. After the Spartans tallied a run in the top of the ninth, Ferriggi worked around a two-out single to retire the side and earn his eighth save of the season.
Collazo went 3 for 5 as Felician out-hit the Spartans, 11-8. De Jong and Meneses were each 2 for 4. Sophomore right-hander John Holland (Jackson, N.J./Jackson Liberty) (4-5) started and suffered the loss for Felician, yielding four runs (two earned) on five hits in 2 2/3 innings.
STAC starting pitcher Matthew Petro (Staten Island, N.Y./St. Joseph by-the-Sea) (2-1) gave up one earned run on eight hits with five strikeouts in six-plus innings. Ferriggi was 2 for 4 and scored twice and Derek Hirsch (Melville, N.Y./St. Dominic's) also had two hits for the Spartans.
