PURCHASE, N.Y. - The Purchase College baseball celebrated Senior Day with a walk-off win Sunday afternoon, splitting a pair of contests with Manhattanville University.
With the results, the Panthers are now 17-16 overall and 10-6 in the Skyline Conference. For the Valiants, they moved to 26-11 and 13-5, respectively.
Before the day began, the squad took time to honor seven seniors, all of whom spent all four years with the Panthers. The list of seniors included:
Patrick Reyes (Plainedge, NY),
Tristen Abreu (Queens, NY),
Frank Rega (West Islip, NY),
Liam Daly (Babylon, NY),
Tyler Della Mura (Rye Brook, NY),
Philip Dragovich (New York City, NY) and
Brandon Reybok (Lindenhurst, NY).
Head coach
Adam Taraska planned a wonderful ceremony with words of praise written by him, as well as a gift exchange to forever cement the soon-to-be graduates as Panthers for life. The seven players were joined on the field by family and friends, before posing with the entire squad for a photos. It was an emotional ceremony as the day capped one of the best four-year runs in program history.
Following the celebration, the squad quickly had to refocus on the task at hand - Manhattanville.
Game One: Manhattanville 8, Purchase 2 (7 inn.)
Despite the effort, the Blue and Orange fell in the first contest as the guests grabbed the lead in the fourth inning and never let up.
Offensively, Daly produced the only runs for the hosts, as he crushed a two-run home run in the fourth.Â
Overall, the squad finished with six hits in the contest, as
Cameron Cruz (JR/Throggs Neck, NY) and
Robert Nunez (Franklin Square, NY) each had a pair.
On the hill,
Colin D'Onofrio (SO/Stamford, CT) collected the loss in the start. He went 3.1 innings, allowing two runs (one earned) on four hits.
Game Two: Purchase 3, Manhattanville 2
Following the loss, the hosts rebounded with a crowd-rocking walk-off win to cap the day. Reyes was the hero, as he nailed a two-run single in the bottom of the ninth to hand Purchase the victory.
Outside of that,
Brian Saldana (JR/Middletown, NY) crushed an RBI-triple in the fourth to give the Panthers the lead early on, 1-0. From there, the guests scored twice in the seventh, before Reyes won it two innings later.
Purchase finished with 10 hits in the win, as Daly led the way with four, including a triple and a double.
On the mound,
Christian Miesegaes (JR/Staten Island, NY) was nearly untouchable in the complete-game win. He allowed two runs (none earned) on just three hits over the nine innings, while striking out five.
Up next for the squad is the home finale, as it hosts Farmingdale State College for a doublheader on May 1st at 3 p.m.
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