SCRANTON, Pa. - Senior Mohammed Hussein(Queens, NY/William C. Bryant) finished 2-for-4 with a home run and junior Joe Fichera(Mahopac, N.Y./Mahopac) finished 2-for-4 with a double and a triple but the Keystone College baseball team fell at the University of Scranton 8-3 in the final regular season contest of the year for the Giants on Tuesday evening.
With the defeat, Keystone is now 23-14 and will await the winner of Cairn/Wilson on Wednesday. The Giants will host either the Highlanders or the Phoenix in the CSAC Championship series on May 10-11. The Royals improve to 17-20 on the year.
Fichera started the game with a leadoff triple down the right field line and later scored on an RBI groundout by senior Dakota McFadden (Rocky Point, NC/Heide Trask) to give Keystone an early 1-0 lead.
The Royals plated four the in the bottom of the fourth to take a 4-1 edge. Hussein followed with a run-scoring single up the middle to score Fichera in the third, making it a 4-2 game.
Trailing 5-2 in the fifth, Hussein blasted a solo shot to left field to get the Giants within two, 5-3. However, Scranton went on to tally three runs in the eighth to put the game away.
Overall, Keystone finished with seven hits as McFadden and seniors Johann Paniagua (Bronx, NY/James Monroe Campus High School) and Ronald Medina (Bronx, NY/Dewitt Clinton) all tallied one hit apiece.
Senior Christopher Adams (Brooklyn, NY/Franklin K. Lane) suffered the loss, striking out two in one inning pitched. Junior Matt Tarabola (Fort Lee, N.J./Fort Lee) pitched 4 ⅓ innings and struck out one while junior Ramon Disla (Bronx, N.Y./Alfred E. Smith) threw 1 ⅔ frames with one punchout. McFadden tossed one frame with one K.