Matt Gad – Sports Writer
The Owls baseball team is sitting at 19-8-1, with a 7-1 NE-10 mark. Last year they finished the season 16-25-1 and missed out on conference and national postseason opportunities.
“This was a huge win,” head coach Tim Shea said, of his team’s 5-4 defeat of the Adelphi Panthers. “They’re a divisional opponent who we beat the first time on the road so we beat them today, we own the head-to-head and we won the series, which is critical.”
With the win April 12, Nate Carney improved to 3-2 with a 2.83 ERA. He’s put in 47 innings so far this season, sacrificing 56 hits, 20 runs and seven walks, while striking out 30. Junior Jake Santamaria picked up the save, his fourth of the season.
“The game went great. Pitching was strong, the offense was good and we had timely hitting,” Mike DeMartino said, who went 2-4 with a run and an RBI.
Leadoff hitter Jim Palmer scored a run, DeMartino picked up two hits and second baseman Ryan Kaplan had a hit and an RBI, improving his average to .239 on the year.
“We had Nate Carney on four days rest who gutted it out and gave us a great start and then Brendan Ebert comes in, gets the out in the sixth, pitches the seventh and gets a critical double play from Palmer when there were runners on first and third with nobody out,” Shea said.
Despite only having five hits, the Owls scored on Adelphi in the first and fourth and erupted for three runs in the fifth inning on a single by Tyler Criscuolo, a Greg Zullo walk and RBI and a Connor Redahan sacrifice fly.
“The game flowed perfectly. Our bullpen was great today and we did enough offensively to score some runs and got a big W,” said Shea.
Southern lost to Le Moyne College April 14 11-3 in a game where Griffin Bremer took the loss to send himself to 4-2. The Owls had 12 hits but only managed to score the three runs. Saturday they swept the doubleheader 5-1 and then 5-3. In Game 1, they were backed by the pitching of Cole Bryant, who improved to 6-0.
Bryant gave up five hits and walked and struck out three. In Game 2, Ebert went to 3-1 and Quantique White collected his third save on the year. Southern only gave up two hits, as Le Moyne’s chances were significantly drawn back after they committed five errors.
“We’re just trying to get wins, that’s all we’re trying to do,” DeMartino said.
Coming up, the Owls host the University of New Haven Wednesday at 3:30 p.m, then go on the road for one at LIU Post. Southern then opens up a seven game home stand which starts with a doubleheader with LIU Post April 23. On the 25th, they will face the College of Saint Rose.
Games with Adelphi and American International College round out the home stretch April 26th, 29th and 30th. They return to West Haven for UNH again May 2 and close out the regular-season at home against Pace University for a single game May 5 and a doubleheader May 6, at 12 and 3 p.m, respectively.
Photo Courtesy: SCSU Athletic Communications
