Game 1: Farmingdale State - 4, St. Joseph's - 2
Game 2: Farmingdale State - 6, St. Joseph's - 5
Farmingdale, N.Y. - The Farmingdale State baseball team improved to 24-9, 5-1 in the Skyline with two wins today over conference opponent St. Joseph's (19-17, 12-3). With the wins, the Rams secured the #1 seed for the upcoming Skyline Playoffs and will host the Semifinal and Championship rounds on April 27-29. Today marked senior day for pitcher C.J. Bula (Mohegan Lake, N.Y.), second baseman Danny DeVito (Plainview, N.Y.), third baseman Ryan McAllister (Miller Place, N.Y.), pitcher Chris Phelan (Patchogue, N.Y.) and catcher Frank Scarlato (Holbrook, N.Y.).
In game one, Phelan pitched a complete game for his sixth win of the season, striking out six and allowing seven hits with no walks and no earned runs. Phelan is now 6-1 overall with four complete games, one shutout and a 2.17 ERA.
The only scoring innings were in the bottom of the fourth for Farmingdale and the top of the fifth for St. Joe's. In the fourth, the Rams had six hits to score the four runs which would remain enough to take the victory. St. Joe's got two runs back in the fifth on two hits and one error.
Freshman second baseman Thomas Rydzewski (Franklin Square, N.Y.) went 2-for-3 for Farmingdale State, with one run scored, one walk and one RBI. McAllister finished 2-for-4 with one run and one RBI. Freshman shortstop Anthony Alvino (Lindenhurst, N.Y.) and junior first baseman Ron Remi (Massapequa, N.Y.) each had one RBI.
Game two was tied 1-1 after the first inning, before the Rams jumped ahead 5-1 with a big second inning. With one out, sophomore designated hitter Danny Paccione (Commack, N.Y.) started a hit streak with a single to left field. The Rams followed with singles from freshman shortstop Matthew Zsevc (Westbury, N.Y.), sophomore Nicholas Ventricelli (Woodbury, N.Y.) and Alvino, who would all come around to score.
St. Joe's got three back in the third and one in the fourth, but the Rams run in the bottom of the third would hold as the game-winning run. Paccione singled to center to bring home junior catcher Eric Wiener (Deer Park, N.Y.) from second.
Bula got the win in 5.1 innings to improve to 6-2 overall, striking out four with four earned runs. Freshman Michael Santagata (Brentwood, N.Y.) pitched the final inning for the save, his fourth of the season.
*****