Box Score - Game 1
Box Score - Game 2

West Harrison, NY (Mar. 24, 2013) – With the Panthers likely playing in West Harrison for the last time Sunday, the Purchase College baseball team gave Silver Lake Park – its longtime early season home – a proper sendoff, winning both ends of a Skyline Conference doubleheader.

The remaining schedule calls for the Panthers to shift back to their campus home field following Spring Break next week and the department will indeed break ground on the planned turf field complex this Apr. 1, with the baseball program expected to move into its new digs next fall. A Sunday twin bill culminated a perfect weekend for the first-place Panthers, who are now 4-0 in the league standings after soundly defeating NYU-POLY 14-0 and 13-3, respectively.

Purchase (9-5 overall, 4-0 Skyline Conference) pounded out 18 hits in the opener, highlighted by homeruns from Justin Sherman (SR/New Rochelle, NY), Ronald Echavarria (SR/Bronx, NY) and Daniel Stroud (SR/Nyack, NY). The lineup had six hitters collect multiple hits, including Leo Francisco (JR/Bedford Hills, NY), who went 3 for 3 with a triple, RBI and run scored in game one. Michael Sarni (SR/Bridgeport, CT), Michael Skoller (JR/East Meadow, NY), Echavarria and Stroud each finished with two hits apiece. Stroud and Sherman accounted for three RBI each in the opener, where the Panthers scored early and often to back starter Miller Lulow* (SR/New York, NY).

Purchase scored one in the first, two in the second, one in the third and sixth in the fourth, breaking open the game. The Panthers would then add three more runs in the fifth and one in the eighth.

Lulow was nearly perfect through six innings. The righty allowed only one hit, one walk and struck out six for the victory. Relievers Gary Riefenhauser (SR/Dobbs Ferry, NY), Michael Moore (SR/Bronx, NY) and Lucas Vaz (JR/Astoria, NY) closed out the game, totaling three scoreless innings.

Game two brought more of the same offensively for Purchase – at least late, after the two teams battled in a close game throughout the first three frames. NYU-POLY struck first for a run in the first, but the Panthers matched it in the bottom half of the inning. The Jays made it 2-1 in the third, but Purchase once again answered in the bottom half, tying the score. The Panthers finally broke through for an incredible 11-run fourth inning, highlighted by a barrage of longballs, including three inside-the-park homeruns and another tater from Echavarria that cleared the fence. NYU-POLY could only muster one more run as the Panthers closed the door on a sweep.

Left-handed pitcher Christopher Nast (JR/Pound Ridge, NY), who started game two, earned the win. He allowed three runs over five innings. Lulow pitched one more inning in relief, capping a nice day for the side-winding starter/reliever, tossing a perfect sixth, and Blake Jones (SO/Ballston Spa, NY) sealed the seventh, with a scoreless frame in which he struck out all three batters he faced.

The Panthers torched NYU-POLY for 13 more hits, including four more homeruns – Echavarria, John Jonas (JR/Goshen, NY), Robert Robles (SO/Bronx, NY) and Josh Spielberg (SR/Oceanside, NY).

Sarni led the way with three hits, including a triple. Echavarria, Colin Morris (SR/Bridgeport, CT) and Spielberg also notched two hits apiece. Spielberg accounted for three RBI, with teammates Sherman, Jonas and Echavarria adding two RBI apiece.

NYU-POLY (2-9, 1-5) was led by Anthony Finch in game two. Finch, who took the loss on the hill, totaled two of the team's six hits and brought home two RBI. However, he took the loss on the mound.

Purchase baseball will take in a few road games on Spring Break before returning home the week after. Spring Break is highlighted by three games, including Tuesday's opener at Keystone.