Box Score 1 |
Box Score 2 HOCKESSIN, Del. – Senior left-hander Drue Brooks (Spring Hill, Fla.) pitched seven strong innings and junior shortstop Bruce Strickland (Hazlet, N.J.) went 3 for 5 to lead the Felician University baseball team to a 9-1 victory over host Goldey-Beacom College in Game 1 of the teams' non-conference doubleheader on Sunday afternoon at Doyle Field. Goldey-Beacom gained a split by rallying for a 7-6 Game 2 triumph.
Senior second baseman Ralph Caccavale (Massapequa, N.Y.) was 5 for 6 plus a walk on the day for the Golden Falcons, who were playing their third road doubleheader in as many days in as many states. Felician (32-11) is ranked No. 16 in the most recent national NCAA Division II writers' poll, and is 29th in Collegiate Baseball magazine's national D-II rankings
The games were classified as non-conference between the two Central Atlantic Collegiate Conference members. Felician swept a CACC twinbill from the Lightning on Apr. 4 in Lyndhurst, N.J.
Game 1 began as a solid duel between Brooks (2-2) and GBC freshman righty Brandon Ferrie (Royersford, Pa.). The Lightning were the first team on the scoreboard on a bases-loaded double-play in the bottom of the fifth inning.
Felician broke through for four unearned runs against Ferrie (1-6) in the sixth. After an error should have ended the inning, The Golden Falcons strung together five consecutive hits. Brennan Price (Middlesex, N.J.) tied the game with an RBI single, and a two-run double by Jason Polgano (Bronx, N.Y.) put the visitors ahead for good. The rally was capped with a run-scoring single by J.R. Meneses (Lake Worth, Fla.).
Brooks and two relievers kept GBC off the board the rest of the way. In seven innings, Brooks allowed four hits, struck out five batters, and walked one. Felician took control with four more runs in the eighth inning and added one in the ninth. Meneses was 2 for 5 with two RBI and Caccavale and Matt Kleinstein (Marlboro, N.J.) added two hits apiece for Felician. Lightning junior Raul Perez-Duran (Trenton, N.J.) went 3 for 4.
Perez-Duran (2-4) started on the mound in Game 2, a scheduled seven-inning affair, and battled long enough for his team to rally him to victory. The Lightning (8-34) recovered from deficits of 4-2 and 6-4 in the contest, and survived seven extra-base hits by the Golden Falcons, including three home runs.
Kleinstein, who had entered the game to catch in the previous half-inning, broke a 4-4 tie with a home run to straight away center field with one out in the top of the sixth. Caccavale followed with a double and scored on a triple by Matt Diesel (Massapequa Park, N.Y.). Though Diesel was stranded on third, the Golden Falcons possessed a two-run edge.
GBC, however, loaded the bases with one out in the home half of the sixth on an error, single, and hit batsman. All three runners moved up when Felician failed to turn a double play on Tevin Thomas's (Dover, Del.) groundout, and the hosts capitalized when Calvin Clark (Millville, N.J.) came up with a two-run single to put his team on top, 7-6. Kevin Banning (Middletown, Del.) pitched a perfect seventh for his first save of the season.
Three Felician pitchers allowed seven hits and yielded six walks. Perez-Duran gave up 11 hits with five strikeouts and one walk. Diesel (3 RBI) and Polgano joined Kleinstein with solo homers in the game, and Caccavale was 3 for 3 and scored twice.
Felician returns to Delaware on Wednesday to conclude its regular season with a non-league doubleheader against CACC member Wilmington University in New Castle. The Golden Falcons are the top seed in the CACC Tournament, and will host No. 8 seed Philadelphia University in a playdown game on Saturday at 6 p.m. in Lyndhurst, N.J.
