Game 1: Farmingdale State 3, U.S. Merchant Marine Academy 2
Game 2: Farmingdale State 7, U.S. Merchant Marine Academy 6
KINGS POINT, N.Y. | The Farmingdale State College baseball team picked up its second Skyline Conference sweep in as many days on Sunday night, as the Rams captured a pair of victories at the U.S. Merchant Marine Academy in a rematch of last spring's conference final. FSC earned a 3-2 decision in the opener behind a one-hitter from senior pitcher
Derek Watts (Baldwin, N.Y.), before holding on for a 7-6 triumph in the nightcap.
FSC took a 1-0 lead in the first game in the top of the third inning, when sophomore
Tyler Diez (Levittown, N.Y.) led off with a single to right field and crossed the plate three batters later on a base hit by senior
Dom LaFroscia (Sayville, N.Y.). The Rams doubled their edge in the fourth inning, as senior
Mike Kocovic (Mahopac, N.Y.) came around to score on two-out single to left field by junior
Ryan Wasserman (New Hyde Park, N.Y.), before the Mariners leveled the game at 2-2 in the bottom half of the frame.
Sophomore
Kaolis Delacruz (Levittown, N.Y.) put Farmingdale State ahead for good in the fifth inning, as he scored from second base on a single by sophomore
Sean Maldonado (Glen Head, N.Y.), before Watts (H, BB, 2 HBP, 4 K) allowed just one USMMA baserunner over the final three innings to cap off the victory.Â
Delacruz and Diez each went 2-for-3 at the plate, while senior outfielder
Richie Heyder (Holbrook, N.Y.) reached base three times via walks.
In the second tilt, Heyder (2 R, a triple short of a cycle) and LaFroscia each went 5-for-5 at the dish to pace a Farmingdale State (13-9, 4-4 Skyline) offense that smashed 18 hits against USMMA (17-9, 9-3 Skyline) pitching.
The teams traded one run apiece in the first inning, with LaFroscia driving home freshman
John Francisco (Smithtown, N.Y.) on an infield single, before FSC scored twice in the third inning to take a lead it would not relinquish. LaFroscia scored Wasserman (1-for-3) with the go-ahead run on a single to left field, before Delacruz's sacrifice fly to center sent Heyder home and put the Rams ahead, 3-1.
Farmingdale State scored two runs apiece in the seventh and eighth inning, with Heyder responsible for three of those runs. He belted a two-run homer to right field to push the lead to 5-3 in the seventh inning, before his two-out double in the eighth chased junior
Christian Villacci (Nesconset, N.Y.) home with the team's seventh run of the game.
USMMA battled back for four runs in the bottom of the eighth inning to pull to within a 7-6 margin, before junior relief pitcher
Carmine Scardina (Farmingdale, N.Y.) stranded two runners by ending the inning with a full-count strikeout to preserve FSC's lead. Watts pitched the ninth inning for the Rams, and worked around a walk and hit by pitch to register a game-ending strikeout and record his third save of the campaign.
Farmingdale State next plays host to Yeshiva University in a Skyline Conference doubleheader, Thursday afternoon (April 23) at 2.
