Walk-off Win by Eagles Splits Doubleheader with Old Westbury

Patchogue, N.Y. – The Golden Eagle baseball team (9-11, Skyline 5-1) spilt its doubleheader with the Panthers of Old Westbury (11-12, Skyline 6-2) this past weekend with a loss in the first game, 8-7, and a victory in the second, 3-2.

In the opener, Old Westbury jumped on junior starter Jonathan Beekman (Longwood, N.Y. / Longwood) in the top of the second. The Panthers put up seven runs on nine hits in the inning. Afterwards, Beekman was replaced by junior Mike Bazoge (Medford, N.Y. / Patchogue-Medford). Bazoge pitched 6.1 effective innings allowing six hits, one earned run, two walks, and struck out six.

St. Joseph's started its comeback in the bottom of the fourth as an error by the Old Westbury pitcher allowed senior Brian Hannigan (West Babylon, N.Y. / St. John Baptist) and freshman Matt Ginobbi (Nesconset, N.Y. / Smithtown East) to score.

In the bottom of the fifth, Dan Diblasi (Lindenhurst, N.Y. / Lindenhurst) doubled down the left field line, scoring senior right fielder Kenny Willms (Centereach, N.Y. / Centereach). Willms reached base on a hit-by-pitch in the previous at-bat.

The sixth, St. Joseph's tacked on three more runs to close the gap to just a one run lead for the Panthers, 7-6.  Senior Vincent Reda (Middle Village, N.Y. / St. Francis Prep) singled through the right side plating one run.  Sophomore Mike Alisio (Westbury, N.Y. / W.T. Clarke) grounded out to second but brought home one run in the process. A single by sophomore Alex Ras (Merrick, N.Y. / Calhoun) plated the third run of the inning for the Eagles. But after that inning, St. Joseph's wasn't able to finish its rally in the bottom of the ninth and an Old Westbury insurance run in the top of the ninth prevented a tie and sealed the 8-7 victory for the Panthers.

The next game was full of suspense as St. Joseph's sent out Diblasi to start the game. He came through and pitched seven strong innings allowing just two runs, while picking up his third win of the season.  

The most action came in the bottom of the seventh inning. With St. Joseph's down 2-1, they needed clutch hits from the middle of the lineup.  Freshman Anthony Gallo (Woodmore, N.Y. / Lawrence) led off with a walk. He stole second on the next pitch, and scored on a single up the middle by Brian Hannigan. Hannigan used his speed from his days of high school track to steal second and put the go-ahead run in scoring position. Next up, stepped sophomore Anthony Andreani (Whitestone, N.Y. / Holy Cross) in a big spot and he delivered his biggest hit of his college career so far - hitting a walk-off single up the middle to give the Golden Eagles the 3-2 win.