The SUNY College at Old Westbury baseball team captured its first Skyline Conference Regular Season Championship with Saturday’s 6-3 and 11-1 road victories over the Maritime Privateers (13-18, 9-7 Skyline) from Reinhart Field. Old Westbury (18-19, 12-4 Skyline) will be the No. 1 seed in the upcoming Skyline Conference Championship set for this weekend at Jackie Robinson Athletic Complex in Old Westbury.
Maritime went up early in the opener with a Joe Longo RBI single for a 1-0 lead at the end of the first inning.
Old Westbury answered in the fourth with Kevin Licul scoring as Michael Cardino grounded into a double play. Brandon Stein then stepped to the plate with an RBI single to deliver home John Angelino for a 2-1 Old Westbury advantage. Maritime went back up with single runs in the seventh and eighth innings before Old Westbury erupted with four runs in the ninth to take the opener. Tommy Ziegen scored the game-tying run off Trevor Cannella’s wild pitch. Nick Yip followed with an RBI single to score Jacob Coners for the game-winning run off reliever Ryan Heizman. Two batters later, Old Westbury scored Yip and Jonathan Pagan off a throwing error by short stop Tom Bauer.
Angelino (2-for-4, 2 2B, R) and Byron White (2-4) paced Old Westbury’s offense with multi-hit performances. Coners (1-for-3, R, SB) extended his hitting streak to seven games with a single in the seventh inning.
Arismendy Nunez (5-2) picked up his fifth win of the season by striking out a career-best 14 batters in eight innings of work. Nunez allowed three runs on seven hits and one walk before Alex DiSanto closed the door with a one-two-three ninth inning to record his third save of the season.
Cannella (3-3) was pinned with the game one loss and was charged with four runs on eight hits and four walks in 8.1 innings of mound work.
Nick Galli’s 2-for-4 day included a solo home run in the eighth inning to lead Maritime’s offense.
Yip supplied enough offense to power the Panthers past Maritime in the finale with solo homers in the first and third innings.
In the fourth, White stole third and scored on a throwing error by catcher Albert Doerbecker to make it a three-run lead. Longo doubled home Galli in the bottom of the fourth for Maritime’s lone run of the game.
The Panthers answered in the fifth with a Pagan RBI single and then scored four more in the sixth when Coners delivered an RBI single before Yip smashed a three-run homer for his third long ball of the game.
In the seventh, Joey Walsh scored off Maritime reliever Peter McGurty’s wild pitch and Coners’ two-run double closed out the scoring for Old Westbury’s 11-1 win.
Tim Ingram (6-2) once again dazzled on the mound for Old Westbury, striking out 11 batters to post his team-leading sixth win of the season. Ingram served up just one run on four hits and one walk to record his fourth complete game outing of the season with a seven inning effort. Ingram registered his third double-digit strikeout total of the season and has now fanned 24 batters over his last 18 innings.
Yip produced his fifth three-hit game of the season, finishing 3-for-3 at the plate with three homers and five RBIs. Coners (3-for-5, 2B, 3 RBI, 2 R, SB), Pagan (3-for-4, 2B, RBI, 2 SB) and Jesse Matos (3-for-4, 2 R, SB) also added three-hit games for the Panthers. Coners extended his hitting streak to eight games as the Panthers held a 14-4 edge in hits.
Nick Sarna (3-2) started for Maritime and surrendered two runs on four hits and one walk in three innings to take the loss. Maritime’s bullpen allowed nine runs in four innings.
Bey named All-Conference
The SUNY College at Old Westbury women’s lacrosse freshman midfielder Sara Bey was named All-Skyline Conference First-Team as league officials announced its annual postseason awards. Bey cemented herself in the Old Westbury record books as the first Panther to earn all-conference honors.
Bey, a native of Merrick, New York, started all 16 games for Old Westbury and controlled the draw a team-high 51 times to set a new program single-season record. She registered single-season program records of six hat tricks (all-time leader), 37 goals and 38 points. Bey finished the season with two game-winners, one assist, 36 grounds balls and 21 caused turnovers.
Bey ranked among the conference leaders in goals per game (2.31, 7th), points per game (2.38, 11th) and game-winning goals (2, T-5th).
