Box Score NEW CASTLE, Del. – CACC Player of the Year Aaron Brill (West Palm Beach, Fla.) delivered a game-tying, two-out, two-run single in the bottom of the ninth inning and fellow senior Jordan Tackett (Fredericksburg, Va.) stroked a walk-off single in the 10th to lead No. 2 seed Felician College to a 10-9 victory over No. 5 seed Dominican (N.Y.) College in the winners' bracket final of the 2014 Central Atlantic Collegiate Conference Baseball Tournament on Friday afternoon at Wilson Field.
Felician advances to Saturday's championship round, where it will take on top seed and tournament host Wilmington (Del.) University. First pitch is slated for 11 a.m. at Wilson. Wilmington, the No. 11-ranked team in the latest national NCAA Division-II writers' poll, eliminated Dominican with a 2-1 win in the losers' bracket final later Friday.
The Golden Falcons need one win on Saturday to claim their first CACC championship, while Wilmington would need two victories over Felician for its fourth consecutive crown.
On Friday, CACC Pitcher of the Year Jerry Vasto (Atlantic Highlands, N.J.) worked six innings for Felician (28-18), matching a career high with 11 strikeouts and departing with a 7-1 lead. Vasto set the Golden Falcon single-season strikeout record of 79, surpassing the 76 of Brian Dudzinski two years ago.
But the Chargers (22-23) built a comeback against the Felician bullpen. A two-run double by Robert Alonso (Hurley, N.Y.) highlighted a three-run seventh, and Dominican rallied for three more runs in the eighth to knot the score. Jayson Gray (New Rochelle, N.Y.) produced a two-run single with two outs, and the tying run came home on a Felician fielding error.
Dominican completed the comeback with a pair of scores in the top of the ninth. Carlos Lopez (Miami, Fla.) doubled home Tyler Clark (Cheshire, Conn.) with the go-ahead run and later scored on a Luis Paniagua (New York, N.Y.) sacrifice fly. But Felician pinch-hitters Chris Faber (Neptune, N.J.) and Mike Martone (Brick, N.J.) reached base to start the home half of the ninth on a hit batsman and single, respectively.
Pinch runners Chris Ahearn (Staten Island, N.Y.) and Eric Pecoraro (Toms River, N.J.) were sacrificed to second and third, but Dominican senior right-hander Jesse McIlwaine (Huntington, N.Y.) retired Gabriel Fellin (Temple, Pa.) on a soft liner to short. That brought up Brill, who grounded a 1-and-1 McIlwaine offering up the middle to plate both runners and force extra frames.
Felician senior righty Stephen Paladino (Staten Island, N.Y.) (4-2) made quick work of the Chargers in the top of the 10th, and classmate Jay Collazo (Wall, N.Y.) was hit by a pitch for the third time in the game leading off the bottom half. Collazo advanced on a wild pitch by Peter Martinez (White Plains, N.Y.) (4-5) and one-out later, moved to third base on a ground-out. Tackett, who had just entered the game as a defensive replacement, then sent the Golden Falcons fans home happy with a ground-ball single through the right side.
Paladino worked two scoreless innings to earn the victory. Brill and Scott De Jong (North Haledon, N.J.) had three hits apiece, and Joe Petosa (Spotswood, N.J.) was 2 for 5, tying Mickey Zudonyi for Felician's all-time hits record with 217. Freshman designated hitter Brennan Price (Middlesex, N.J.) drove in three runs.
Lopez finished 3 for 5 for the Chargers. The game lasted 3 hours, 20 minutes.
