Box Score NEWARK, N.J. – Three Felician University pitchers combined on a no-hitter in the Golden Falcons' 11-1 Central Atlantic Collegiate Conference baseball victory over host Bloomfield College on Wednesday afternoon at West Side Park. The gem is the second no-hitter in the 22-year history of the Felician program.
The victory, Felician's fifth in a row, allowed the Golden Falcons (11-10, 9-2 CACC) to take over first place in the CACC North Division from Bloomfield. Felician has a winning overall record for the first time since it was 2-1 on Mar. 9.
Sophomore left-hander Darwin Matos (Clifton, N.J.) started on the mound for the visitors and worked three innings, giving up an unearned run in the third. He departed in favor of junior lefty Justin Tucker (Neptune, N.J.) (4-0), who struck out four in two frames and was credited with his CACC-leading fourth victory of the season. Sophomore righty Bryan Ariza (Boynton Beach, Fla.) tossed the sixth and seventh frames, recording a strikeout for the final out. The game was halted after seven innings due to the NCAA 10-rule rule which the CACC has invoked for conference contests.
The Felician pitching trio combined to strike out eight batters, walk four and hit two. In the third, with the Golden Falcons on top, 5-0, Bear freshman Andres Frias (Hamilton, N.J.) reached on an error, advanced on a passed ball, stole third base and came home on an Elvis Lopez (Randolph, N.J.) sacrifice fly.
The Bears' hardest-hit ball of the afternoon came off the bat of junior Justin Sanchez (Kearny, N.J.) with two outs in the sixth. The line drive appeared ticketed up the middle to break up the no-hitter, but before it could, Ariza made the catch. In the seventh, Bloomfield nearly extended the game, putting a runner on third base with two outs on a hit batsman, stolen base and groundout, but Ariza retired Frias to secure Felican's first no-hitter in more than 12 years.
Felician junior right fielder Sean Downey (Elizabeth, N.J.) opened the scoring with a line drive home run in the top of the first inning. The Golden Falcons plated two runs in each of the next three innings. They extended to a 10-1 lead with a three-run fifth, receiving a bases-loaded walk from Downey and Mike Martinez's (Union City, N.J.) two-run single. Another Downey walk with two outs in the seventh set up the key 11th run. Pinch-runner Lance Mumford (Brandon, Fla.) stole second, then scored on Edwin Tavarez's (Garfield, N.J.) double.
Felician designated hitter Levis Aguila (Miramar, Fla.) was 2 for 4 with a double and scored three runs. Tavarez and Andrew Florides (Glen Clove, N.Y.) also collected two hits each and Martinez finished with three runs batted in.
The only previous no-hitter in Felician history came on Mar. 21, 2009, when five pitchers – Jeff Calabrese, Al Jardine, Anthony Spina, Vic Monteagudo and Jon Del Franco – combined to shut down Lincoln (Pa.) University during Game 2 of a non-conference doubleheader at Breslin Field in Lyndhurst.
Felician and Bloomfield conclude their three-game CACC season-series with a doubleheader hosted by the Golden Falcons on Sunday at 1 p.m. at the Lyndhurst Recreation Complex.
