Game 1: Farmingdale State 3, Mount Saint Vincent 0
Game 2: Farmingdale State 10, Mount Saint Vincent 3
FARMINGDALE, N.Y. | The Farmingdale State College baseball team ran its winning streak to four-consecutive games on Sunday, as the Rams opened Skyline Conference play with a doubleheader sweep over visiting University of Mount Saint Vincent. FSC won the first game by a 3-0 score, with senior right-handed pitcher
Johnny Dougherty (Kings Park, N.Y.) setting the school career shutout record in the process, before besting the Dolphins in the nightcap, 10-3.
Dougherty's 79-pitch (55 strikes), complete-game two-hitter in the opener against UMSV (11-7, 2-4 Skyline), was his fourth shutout in a green and white uniform. He now owns the Farmingdale State (9-6, 2-0; winners in eight of its last nine games) shutout record, as three alumni sitting in second place with three apiece (Rob Savarese, 2006-08; Chris Phelan, 2009-12; Matthew Constantine, 2016-19).
Game 1
Dougherty faced just one batter over the minimum in the seven-inning victory, walking one hitter and striking out eight, while not allowing any Dolphins runners past first base. He carried a no-hitter two batters into the fourth inning on a clean single to left-center field, before scattering a left-side single in the sixth frame and a one-out walk in the seventh on his only three-ball count of the afternoon.
The Rams received all the offense they would need in the third inning, when senior third baseman
Tyler DiRocco (Commack, N.Y.) crossed the plate with the first of his two runs in the contest. He led off the inning with a single to center field, moved to third base two batters later on a perfectly executed hit-and-run single by junior outfielder
Richie Heyder (Holbrook, N.Y.), and scored on senior
Chris McGuggart's (Bethpage, N.Y.) sacrifice fly to center to put his team on the board.
Farmingdale State upped its lead to 3-0 two innings later, with DiRocco and Heyder each scoring runs. DiRocco reached on a leadoff infield error, before moving to second on a sacrifice bunt by freshman shortstop
Kaolis Delacruz (Levittown, N.Y.). Heyder scored DiRocco with a single through the right side of the infield, before stealing second base in the next at-bat. Senior first baseman
Jordan Lambert (Plainview, N.Y.) then chased Heyder home with a single up the middle, increasing the Rams' edge to three runs.
Heyder and Lambert each went 2-for-3 in the game with a stolen base, while McGuggart started double plays in the field in the sixth and seventh innings to aid Dougherty – who has allowed just two earned runs in his 19.2 innings pitched this spring, and presently holds a 10.2 scoreless innings streak. Delacruz helped the offense in the small-ball game, successfully dropping down a pair of sacrifice bunts.
Game 2
McGuggart went 3-for-5 at the dish with a run scored in the nightcap, while DiRocco (2 RBI), Delacruz (2B) and Lambert (2 RBI) each went 2-for-5 to back a quartet of FSC pitchers. Senior outfielder
Justin DiMartino (Bethpage, N.Y.) reached base safely on two hit by pitch and one walk, notching three runs and as many stolen bases.
Delacruz scored the first run of the game in the first inning on a pinch-hit single to center field by junior
James Manzella (Baldwin, N.Y.), with the Dolphins scoring twice in the top of the fourth to take a one-run lead.
From there, Farmingdale State plated nine runs across the next three innings (three in the fourth; two in the fifth; four in the sixth) to take full control on its way to the sweep. Junior
Christian Villacci (Smithtown, N.Y.) scored one run while driving in another in the fourth inning to give the hosts the lead for good, while sophomore catcher
Sean Maldonado (Glen Head, N.Y.; double) and DiRocco turned the same trick in the fifth. Lambert provided a two-run, left-side single in the sixth inning, scoring McGuggart and senior
Matthew Flood (Islip, N.Y.).
Junior
Derek Watts (Baldwin, N.Y.) earned his second victory of the season for the Rams, coming on in relief to pitch perfect innings in the fifth, sixth and seventh, with just two balls leaving the infield to increase his consecutive scoreless innings streak to 11.
Farmingdale State is next in action Thursday night (April 3), when it travels to Hoboken, N.J., for a 5 p.m. first pitch at Stevens Institute of Technology – which is off to a 9-0 start in MAC Freedom conference play.
