PATCHOGUE, NY (www.OLDWESTBURYPANTHERS.com) - The SUNY College at Old Westbury baseball team dominated game one of Saturday's Skyline Conference doubleheader to the tune of an 8-0 win over the St. Joseph's-L.I. Golden Eagles from Gregg Alfano Field. Mother nature got the best of game two with heavy rains, causing for the game to be postponed to a later date. Old Westbury (6-12) improves to 5-0 in conference play while sending the Golden Eagles (4-10) to 2-1.
Jacob Coners led off the home half of the first with a single down the left field line. Nick Yip followed with a triple down the right field line to plate home Coners to break the scoring ice for what proved to be the eventual game-winning run. Jonathan Paganthen delivered a sacrifice fly out to center field to double the Panthers' advantage to push Yip across for the second run of the game.
Two innings later, Kevin Licul used an infield grounder to score Coners to put Old Westbury up by three runs.
The Golden Eagles put an end to Panthers' starter Arismendy Nunez's bid at a perfect game in the fifth inning as Anthony Andreani reached base on a dropped third strike by catcher Brandon Stein. Nunez bounced back to retire the next batter on strikes to record his sixth punch out of the game to end the inning.
Old Westbury added two more runs in the fifth off a throwing error by catcher Mike Aloisio and a failed pickoff attempt by pitcher Robert Hyde to take a 5-0 lead.
It wasn't until the 18th batter of the game for the Golden Eagles to break into the hit column, as Dan Diblasi mustered an infield single for their first hit of the game.
Two more runs crossed the plate for the Panthers in the sixth complements of Coners' RBI double and Yip's RBI single. Brandon Stein closed out the scoring books in the seventh with an RBI single to score pinch runner Robinson Hernandez for the 8-0 final.
Coners' 4-for-4 day at the plate to go along with three runs scored and one RBI led the Panthers offense. His four hits tied a career-high, while Yip (3-5) followed with three hits, two RBIs and one run scored and Stein added two hits, one RBI and a run scored. Pagan (1-4, RBI, R) swept a game-high two bases.
Joe Liberatore and Joseph Lynn also collected singles for St. Joseph's-L.I.
Nunez (2-2) totaled a season-high nine strikeouts with no walks while scattering three hits to earn his third career shutout.
Hyde (1-2) was saddled with Golden Eagles' loss, allowing seven runs (six earned) on 10 hits in six innings of work.
MANHATTANVILLE VALIANTS UP NEXT FOR THE PANTHERS: Old Westbury returns to the diamond on Wednesday (April 2) for a non-conference road battle with the Manhattanville Valiants at 3:30 p.m. in Purchase, New York.
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