FARMINGDALE, NY – Farmingdale State took two from Purchase College Sunday. The Rams earned a 7-2 victory in the opener and capped the afternoon with an 8-2 win.
Game One: Farmingdale 7, Purchase 2
The host Rams recorded their broke the scoring ice in the bottom of the second inning. Sophomore catcher Michael Amandola hit a liner up the middle. The ball rolled all the way to the wall where Panther right fielder
Nick Lasala (JR/Massapequa Park, NY) picked it up and quickly threw it to the cut-off man. Purchase threw the ball home and was able to get Amandola out at the plate as he was trying for the inside-the-park homerun.
Purchase (14-13, 5-7 Skyline) loaded the bases with two outs in the top of the third, but Rams' junior pitcher Nicholas Rooney was able to force a groundout to third to end the threat.
The game remained scoreless until the bottom of the fifth. Amandola led off the inning with a double and sophomore designated hitter Ryan DePalma followed with a single and moved to second on a stolen base. Senior shortstop Shawn Blasberg and junior second baseman Tyler Schrimpf were the next two batters and both used a suicide squeeze, sacrifice bunt to drive in runs and put FSC ahead, 2-0.
Purchase lit up the board in the top of the seventh to close within one run of the Rams' lead.
Patrick Wallace (JR/Manorville, NY) scored the unearned run for PC after an error by FSC center fielder Steven Burke.
The Rams answered back in the bottom half of the inning with one run off three straight one-out singles by Amandola, DePalma and Blasberg, respectively. The next batter, Schrimpf, reached on an error, load the bases before freshman Patrick Leach pinch-hit two batters later and tallied a grand slam over the left-center field wall to put Farmingdale State ahead, 7-1.
With the bases loaded in the top of the ninth, Purchase freshman shortstop
James Shea (Brooklyn, NY) hit a RBI single to center field to cut their deficit to five. FSC senior pitcher Matthew Constantine entered the game and recorded the next two outs to seal the 7-2 game one victory and pick up his first save of the season.
Amandola finished just a homerun shy of the cycle as he went 3-for-4 with a double, a triple and two runs scored. Leach recorded the grand slam in his only at-bat for four runs batted in, while Blasberg was 1-for-1 with two sac hits and two runs batted in. DePalma tallied three singles, a stolen base and two runs scored in the win.
Rooney (W, 3-0) earned the victory after throwing 6.1 innings on the mound and allowing just one run and two hits.
For Purchase, sophomore second baseman
Dylan Flynn (Hauppauge, N.Y.) went 3-for-4 with a walk.
Game Two: Farmingdale 8, Purchase 2
FSC took an early 4-0 lead with a pair of runs in both the first and third innings.
Purchase sophomore left fielder
Matthew Nilsen (Bellmore, NY) got things rolling for the Panthers in the top of the fourth inning as he tallied a two-out, two-run single to cut their deficit in half at 4-2.
Purchase threatened in the top of the fifth inning as they loaded the bases with two outs. Constantine entered the game and forced the next batter to ground out to second base to get out of the jam and maintain the two-run lead.
The Rams extended their advantage to five with three runs in the bottom of the fifth and Constantine (W, 6-1) pitched a 1-2-3 top of the sixth inning. The Rams added a run in the bottom of the inning to take an 8-2 lead.
Junior pitcher Anthony Visconte threw a scoreless top of the seventh as the Rams went on for the 8-2 victory in game two.
Up next, Purchase takes a break from Skyline action to face non-conference College of New Rochelle. First pitch is slated for Wednesday at 7 p.m.
