NCAA Division III New York Regional Tournament Page

AUBURN, NY---(www.OLDWESTBURYPANTHERS.com) No. 7 SUNY Old Westbury baseball (26-11) returned to NCAA Division III New York Regional Tournament play for the first time since 2001 and set the tone Wednesday evening with a 7-5 win over the No. 2 Baldwin Wallace Yellow Jackets (31-11) from Falcon Park in Auburn, New York.  Old Westbury takes the field next on Thursday (May 14) to take on the No. 6 Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute Engineers (27-15) at 7:45 p.m. in day two of the double-elimination tournament.  The Panthers won for the first time in NCAA Championship Tournament play since May 20, 2000, when they defeated Gwynedd-Mercy, 3-2.    

The Panthers' offense gave starting right-hander Tim Ingram (8-3, 8 IP, 8 H, 5 R, 3 BB, 14 K) a boost in the top of the first with three runs on two hits and a walk for an early 3-0 lead.  Jacob Coners (2-for-3, 2 R, 2 BB, SB) worked a leadoff walk, and two batters later, Christian Faust (0-for-3, R, 2 BB) reached base on a two-out walk off Yellow Jacket starting right-hander Logan Heffernan (4-3, 4.2 IP, 6 H, 6 R, 4 BB, 9 K).  Dean Sheridan (1-for-4, 2 R, RBI) followed with a RBI single to score Coners, and Jonathan Pagan (3-for-4, 2 RBI, R, BB, SB) stepped to the plate to drop a run-scoring single into center field to score Faust.  Sheridan would come around to score off a wild pitch during Tommy Ziegen's at bat to close out the first-inning scoring. 

Following a hit batsman and a single, Ingram bounced back to retire his next three batters on swinging strikes to strand two Yellow Jackets on base.  Ingram became Old Westbury's single-season strikeout leader after fanning Hunter Handel (2-for-5, 2 RBI) for the second out of the first inning, surpassing Robert Whitenack's mark of 79 from the 2009 campaign.

Old Westbury built a 6-0 lead in the fifth by scoring a trio of two-out runs.  Pagan smoked a RBI triple to score Sheridan, and then advanced home off a wild pitch for Old Westbury's fifth run.  Following Heffernan's walk to Ziegen, right-handed reliever Connor Murphy took over and surrendered a run-scoring single to Brandon Stein (2-for-5, R), which capped the Panthers' fifth-inning scoring. 

With his two strikeouts in the bottom of the fifth frame, Ingram registered a double-digit strikeout outing for the fifth time in his career.

Baldwin Wallace jumped on the board in the seventh when Anthony Elder scored from third off third baseman Michael Cardino's fielding error. Two batters later, Handel drilled a two-run double to right center to slice the deficit in half. 

Old Westbury answered with one run in the eighth, scoring Coners with two outs off a throwing error by shortstop Eric Murphy to make it a 7-3 game.

Baldwin Wallace responded with a pair of hits to score two in the eighth.  Alex Marcum tripled home Jerry Scholle to spark the scoring, and two batters later, Alex Green rolled an infield ground out to score Marcum to slice the deficit to two runs.  

Left-handed reliever Nick Schoen tossed a one-two-three ninth inning to register his first-career save.  

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