NEW CASTLE, Del. – Sophomore left-hander Jason Polgano (Bronx, N.Y./Cardinal Spellman) pitched a four-hit shutout and classmate Mike Martone (Brick, N.J./Brick Memorial) drove in both runs with a seventh-inning pinch-hit two-run double as Felician University avoided elimination from the 2016 Central Atlantic Collegiate Conference Baseball Championship tournament with a 2-0 victory over Chestnut Hill College on Thursday afternoon at Wilson Field.

Felician, the tournament's top seed, fell to the elimination bracket with an 8-6 first-round loss to No. 4 seed Philadelphia University on Thursday morning.

The Golden Falcons advance to the finals of the elimination bracket on Friday. They will play at noon against the loser of the 9 a.m. game pitting Philadelphia against Dominican (N.Y.) College.

Against No. 2 seed Chestnut Hill, Polgano (7-1) did not allow a runner past first base. The first three runners to reach base for the Griffins were picked off first, two by Polgano and one by Golden Falcon catcher Matt Kleinstein (Marlboro, N.J./Colts Neck). Polgano struck out three batters and walked one, throwing exactly 100 pitches.

CHC starter Patrick Kelley matched Polgano through six frames, allowing Felician (30-19) only three hits to that point. Kleinstein drew a walk to lead off the bottom of the seventh, and J.R. Meneses' (Lake Worth, Fla./Zion Lutheran) sacrifice bunt attempt was thrown errantly past first base, putting runners on second and third. The left-handed hitting Martone was sent to the plate, and sliced a ball into the left-center field gap, plating both runners.

The Golden Falcons tied the program record of 30 victories set in 2014. They set another school mark with their seventh shutout of the season.

Philadelphia scored three times in the top of the eighth inning and twice more in the ninth to erase a 4-3 deficit and emerge victorious over Felician in Thursday morning's opening round. The Rams picked up five hits in the eighth, tying the score on a sacrifice fly by Steven Wells and moving ahead on consecutive safety squeeze bunts for hits by freshmen Matthew McGee and Andres Valbuena.

Felician received an RBI single from Bruce Strickland (Hazlet, N.J./Raritan) in the bottom of the eighth to pull to within 6-5, but Wells hit a two-out, two-run home run in the ninth for an 8-5 lead. Jonathan Gottschall worked around an Andrew LaMura (Brick, N.J./Red Bank Catholic) solo homer in the last of the ninth to earn his first career save.

Strickland, Brennan Price (Middlesex, N.J./Middlesex) and LaMura had three hits each for Felician.