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Box Score 2 NORRISTOWN, Pa. – The Felician University baseball team clinched its fifth consecutive Central Atlantic Collegiate Conference playoff berth with a 12-2 victory over host Chestnut Hill College in Game 2 of the teams' CACC doubleheader on Saturday afternoon at Latshaw-McCarthy Field. Chestnut Hill erased an early four-run deficit to win game 1, 6-4.
Felician (24-17, 12-4 CACC) amassed 18 hits in the second game. Both senior second baseman Ralph Caccavale (Massapequa, N.Y.) and winning pitcher Jason Polgano (Bronx, N.Y.), a sophomore, picked up the 100th base hit of their college careers. The Golden Falcons' 100-hit club now stands at 28 members in the program's 17-year history.
By gaining the split, Felician maintained its one-game lead (two in the loss column) over Chestnut Hill (22-18, 12-6) for first place in the CACC. The Golden Falcons have four league games remaining. The top two team's at season's end will receive a bye into the CACC Tournament's four-team double-elimination main draw; Felician leads by two games over third place.
The left-handed Polgano (5-1) pitched eight innings in Saturday's nightcap, giving up two earned runs on five hits. He struck out a career-high 10 batters while walking one, throwing 83 of 109 pitches for strikes. He contributed to the offense by going 3 for 5 with three runs scored and an RBI. In the top of the ninth inning, he pulled a single through the right side for his milestone hit.
The Golden Falcons scored single runs in the first and second innings before breaking the game open with four runs in the third. Caccavale, who was hit by a pitch, scored on a throwing error, and one out later, Polgano pushed an RBI single through the left side. J.R. Meneses (Lake Worth, Fla.) followed with a run-scoring hit, and Polgano continued around to score on another Griffin error.
The only blemishes on Polgano's pitching line came in the fourth, when, leading 7-0, he surrendered two-out RBI singles to Patrick Campion (Norristown, Pa.) and Eric Gilham (Deptford, N.J.). But Felician scored three times in the seventh, including a two-run triple from Meneses, and received a two-run double from Matt Kleinstein (Marlboro, N.J.) in the ninth.
Meneses finished 4 for 5 with a double, triple, and three RBI and Brennan Price (Middlesex, N.J.) was 4 for 5 with a double for the Golden Falcons. Matt Diesel (Massapequa Park, N.Y.) hit a solo home run in the fourth inning.
Griffin senior catcher Robert Slagle III (Lafayette Hill, Pa.) hit a go-ahead two-run double to highlight a four-run seventh-inning rally in Game 1 and complete CHC's come-back from a 4-0 first-inning deficit. Campion had an RBI single earlier in the inning, and the Griffins plated an insurance run on a Felician error after Slagle's hit.
Felician had put its first two runners of the game on base. One out later, Andrew LaMura (Brick, N.J.) and Price came up with consecutive RBI singles. LaMura scored on a groundout by Polgano, and Price came home on a double by Kleinstein.
But CHC starter Zachary Crim (Horsham, Pa.) and three relievers combined to hold the Golden Falcons scoreless on five base hits the rest of the way. Ezra Bye (Teaneck, N.J.) (2-0) was credited with the victory after recording the final out of the top of the seventh. Freshman Dino Cattai (Philadelphia, Pa.) pitched a perfect ninth for his fifth save of the season. The Griffins had scored twice in the third on RBI singles by Slagle and Brendan Looby (Sewell, Pa.)
Felician junior right-hander Matt Blandino (Bristol, Conn.) (6-3) scattered nine hits over eight innings in defeat. He yielded four earned runs, and set down 10 batters on strikes without a walk. Kleinstein was 3 for 4 with two doubles and LaMura also finished 3 for 4.
Felician plays a CACC doubleheader at Bloomfield College on Tuesday at noon at West Side Park in Newark, N.J.
