 |  |
Devils Clinch Playoff Berth with win over Felician
| Final - Game 2 | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | R | H | E |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Felician (23-21, 10-10) | 3 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 2 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 7 | 9 | 4 |
| USciences (13-20, 11-9) | 2 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 2 | 5 | 17 | 1 |
| @ Philadelphia, Pa. | Richie Ashburn Field | ||||||||||||
| Pitching |
|---|
| Win: HAUBER, Brett (6-5) - Felician |
| Loss: Peyton (4-4) - USciences |
| Felician Batting |
|---|
| 2B: MONTEAGUDO, Victor 3; SIMPSON, Jimmy |
| 3B: HIDALGO, Miguel |
| HR: none |
| USciences Batting |
|---|
| 2B: none |
| 3B: none |
| HR: none |
| Final - Game 1 | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | R | H | E |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Felician (22-21, 9-10) | 1 | 1 | 0 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 5 | 6 | 2 |
| USciences (13-19, 11-8) | 2 | 0 | 2 | 0 | 5 | 3 | 0 | 0 | X | 12 | 10 | 2 |
| @ Philadelphia, Pa. | Richie Ashburn Field | ||||||||||||
| Pitching |
|---|
| Win: McMahon (6-2) - USciences |
| Loss: PALADINO, Steve (4-4) - Felician |
The University of the Sciences men's baseball team is headed for the Central Atlantic Collegiate Conference playoffs for the first time in program history courtesy of a 12-5 win in the opening game of Saturday's doubleheader against Felician College at Richie Ashburn Field in Philadelphia.
The Devils did drop the nightcap, 7-5 to conclude the regular season with an 11-9 conference record and a 13-20 overall mark. Felician finishes their regular season at 10-10 in league play and 23-21 overall. The opening round of the CACC playoffs will commence on Tuesday, May, 10, 2011. Sciences currently holds the #5 seed and will face #4 seed Caldwell college at Caldwell. The Devils 11 conference wins are a school record and mark the first time they have finished conference play with a winning record. Sciences 13 overall wins are the most since the 1987 season when the program won 15 games. The school record is 18 wins, set back in 1986. The 13 wins are also nine more than the team had in 2010 when they went 4-36 (a +12.5 game overall improvement).
Sciences banged out ten hits in the opener and took advantage of the wildness of the Golden Falcons pitchers with a five run fifth inning to break open a 4-4 game. Lou Tomasetti finished the game with three RBI while Dennis Murphy and Mark Perry each drove in two. Perry and Davis also had two hits apiece and eight of the Devils nine players in the batting order had a hit in the game.
Pete LaRocco tripled to drive in the Devils first run in their first-at-bat, tying the game at 1-1 and came in to score on Perry's sacrifice fly. Felician tied the game with a run in the second inning and the Devils took a 4-2 lead in the third on an RBI single from Perry who then scored on Davis' triple.
The Golden Falcons knotted the score again at 4-4 with two runs in the fourth before the Devils blew the game open in the fifth, scoring five runs, all without a hit in the inning. Nick Szalejko walked to start the inning, stole second and advanced to third on an error and came around to score on another error on a double steal attempt. Four straight walks produced two more runs and left the bases loaded. A force play at home produced the second out before Jeff Murtha was hit by a pitch with the bases load to score the Devils fourth run of the inning. Tomasetti scored the fifth run on a passed ball, giving the Devils a 9-4 lead.
Sciences tacked on three more runs in the sixth. Jay Andrews doubled to lead off the inning and LaRocco was hit by a pitch and moved up on an infield groundout. An intentional walk to Davis loaded the bases and Murphy was hit by pitch to score Andrews. Tomasetti followed with a double, scoring LaRocco and Davis, making the score 12-4.
Felician scored an unearned run in the ninth off Larocco who had come on to relieve starter Dan McMahon, making the final score 12-5. McMahon picked up his sixth win of the season, becoming just the second pitcher in school history to win six or more games in a season (Tim Fox won seven games twice (1986 and 1987 and holds the school record of nine wins, set back in 1985). McMahon threw eight innings, giving up five hits and four runs (two earned) while striking out seven.
In the nightcap, the Devils banged out 17 hits, equaling their season high but lost a tough 7-5 decision. Felician tagged starterLuke Peyton with all seven runs over the first 6 1/3 innings. Peyton struck out three and walked five, falling to 4-4 on the year.
Szalejko had four hits, including two infield singles and was also hit by a pitch for the 20th time this season, establishing a new CACC record for being hit the most times in one season. Murphy added three hits while LaRocco, Perry and Jeff Murtha each had two.
After Felician scored three times in the first, Davis singled home Szalejko with the first Devils run with Andrews subsequently scoring on an error, cutting the lead to 3-2. Both teams scored single runs in the third and the Golden Falcons added two more in the fifth and another in the seventh to lead 7-3. Szalejkop's bases loaded infield single and subsequent throwing error by Golden Falcon shortstop Jon Arche produced the final two runs of the game.
