St. Joseph's (L.I) athltics photo

The St. Joseph's University, New York baseball team had to beat Farmingdale State College twice on Championship Sunday to claim their third straight Skyline Conference Tournament title. The Golden Eagles forced a second game with a 12-5 victory in a must-win game one before walking off with a 9-8 win and the title in game two. Senior John Lynch (. 471 BA, 3 2B, 2 HR, 8 R, 6 RBI) was named the tournament's Most Outstanding Player.

Game one: SJLI 12; Farmingdale St. 5
Key Players:

Senior John Lynch was 3-for-4 with a home run, three runs, two RBIs

Freshman Joe Thatcher went 4-for-5, a home run, three runs, and an RBI

Junior Mike DiFilippo had two hits including a three-run home run, four RBIs, two runs

Junior Dante Morabito picked up the win out of the pen providing 6.1 innings of relief

How it happened:

Farmingdale struck first with a run in the bottom of the first. Chris McGuggart sent a one-out single up the middle and then came around to score on a base hit to center by Jordan Lambert

An RBI single from Tyler DiRocco in the bottom of the third scored Ryan Wasserman who drew a one-out walk earlier in the inning, 2-0

The Rams doubled their lead with a pair of runs in the bottom of the fourth. Ryan Wasserman singled in Sean Maldonado before coming into score on an RBI double by Ritche Heyder, 4-0

Thatcher led off the top of the fifth with a deep drive over the left field fence to put the Golden Eagles on the board, 4-1

St. Joseph's cut their deficit to just one with a couple of runs in the top of the seventh. Lynch worked a walk to start the inning before singles from Thatcher and Sanguedolce with two outs loaded the bases. Back-to-back walks to Rob Page and Joe Hackal forced in a couple of runs inching the Golden Eagles to within one, 4-3

Lynch tied it up with solo blast well over the right field fence with one out in the top of the eighth. Back-to-back base hits from Anselmo Joya and Thatcher put runners on the corners for DiFilippo who put the Golden Eagles ahead, 7-4, with a home run to left

SJLI reliever Morabito worked himself out of a bases loaded jam in the bottom half of the eighth before St. Joseph's sent all nine Golden Eagles to plate adding five runs on six hits to widen the gap, 12-4

The Rams managed to push a run across in the bottom of the ninth, but Morabito finished the game getting Daniel Molina to ground out to Crema at second for the final out

Game two: SJLI 9; Farmingdale 8
Key Players:

Hackal was 3-for-4 a walk, an RBI, and a run scored

Lynch went 1-for-3 with a three-run home run

Junior Chris Perri was credited with the win behind four innings of work out the pen

How it happened:

St. Joseph's struck first in game two with a four-run bottom of the third. Sophomore Marco Gullo and Hackal started the inning drawing a pair of walks. Crema doubled in Gullo for the first run of the inning before Lynch turned on a pitch from FSC's Christian Esperon and put it onto the tennis courts for the second time on the day, 4-0

The Rams cut SJLI's lead in half when Wasserman singled down the right field line scoring Maldonado and Deutsch, 4-2

The Golden Eagles loaded the bases with no outs in the bottom half of the fifth before Sanguedolce was hit by a pitch forcing in a run and fielder's choice pushed Thatcher across for the second run of the inning. Hackal singled in DiFilippo and a wild throw on a double play attempt scored Gullo for an 8-2 SJLI advantage

Farmingdale batted around in the top half of the sixth pushing across four runs on four hits highlighted by a two-run home run by Bobby Pollock moving the Rams to within two, 8-6

FSC stayed alive with two runs in the top of the ninth. An RBI single from Pollock followed by an RBI double from DiRocco evened the score forcing the Golden Eagles to bat in the bottom of the ninth

Joya led off the ninth with an infield single. Thatcher drew a walk before DiFilippo loaded the bases with a bunt base hit. Two batters later, Gullo sent a fly ball out to right deep enough to score Joya from third to win the title in walk-off fashion

The Golden Eagles advance to the NCAA Div. III Regional Tournament and will learn their opponent during the selection show scheduled for Monday, May 13th at 12:00 pm.