Golden Eagles Season Comes to an End After Saturday's Split at NCAA Regionals
Ambler, PA – The SUNY Brockport baseball team's season came to an end on Saturday after going 1-1 in the elimination round of the NCAA Regional, hosted by Arcadia University. The Golden Eagles beat Arcadia University, 6-2, in the morning advancing to the next matchup. In another elimination game, they fell 8-6 in the afternoon to Susquehanna, halting Brockport's postseason run.
Brockport 6, Arcadia 2 - Final - Post Game Press Conference
Starting on the mound in the early game for the Green and Gold was Andrew Huffman. Huffman (W, 3-0) earned the win today after striking out seven batters. He let up two hits, one run, and four walks in 7.0 innings pitched.
Brockport scored first in the bottom of the second inning to go up 1-0 early. After Justin Pangburn was walked, James Houlahan singled to third base with a bunt to put Pangburn in scoring position. Johnny Genau put the ball in play, resulting in an Arcadia fielding error that allowed Pangburn to score.
Brockport scored two more runs in the bottom of the third to extend the lead to 3-0. Nicholas Pastore singled to the right side of the field and soon moved over to third after a Zach Eldred double. Patrick Bigham grounded out to the second baseman, which brought Pastore in to score and pushed Eldred to third. Ryan Mansell singled to left center bringing home Eldred from the third run of the day.
With Huffman holding the Knights scoreless through five innings, Brockport's run in the fifth made it a 4-0 game. Ryan Voight reached on an error by the shortstop and advanced on a pass ball moments later. Pangburn bunted to move Voight over to third base. Genau doubled down the right foul line for the Golden Eagle RBI.
Arcadia scored its first run of the game in the top of the seventh inning to make the score read 4-1. Brockport responded quickly by scoring their fifth run of the game in the bottom of the seventh. Genau and Belsito both connected for singles to go with an Eldred walk to load the bases. A wild pitch would advance all the runners, allowing Genau to touch home plate to make it a 5-1 score.
In the top of the eighth inning, Arcadia scored its final run of the elimination game. Once again the Golden Eagles had a response, pushing their lead to 6-2. Frank Vanzillotta came in to pinch run for Voight, quickly advancing to third on a failed pickoff attempt. Pangburn then knocked an RBI single to right which scored Vanzillotta.
Matthew Colucci pitched the final 2.0 innings to close out the win. He let up two hits, one run, and struck out two batters. The victory eliminated Arcadia University from the postseason, while Brockport advanced to face Susquehanna in another elimination game on Saturday afternoon.
Post Game Press Conference Quotes
"We battled. Arcadia's a scrapy and tough team. We got a great start of out (Andrew Huffman) here. He gave us some depth. He did a great job keeping them off the board. Anytime they showed a little bit of life he did a good job shutting it down. At this point its survive and advance and these guys did what they needed to do to get the job done." - Head Coach Justin Beach
"We're rolling with the punches. We always say that adversity is going to come to the party so today it wasn't only the game it was the weather a little bit." - Andrew Huffman
"Just put bat on ball, find holes and just keep going form that." - Nick Pastore
"At this point everybody is tough. No matter who you face you're going to have a tough game in front of you. Kind of got the monkey off our back a little bit. Last year we went two and out at the Regional at Brockport and we dropped the first game yesterday. It was nice to get a W under our belt and get a little confidence moving into the next game. Like we say, put a baseball game together and try to advance, so we're happy with that." - Justin Beach
"It feels great. We're always putting in work and trying to keep climbing on the ladder for SUNY Brockport. We're climbing each year and trying to do everything we can to keep climbing each year." – Nick Pastore
"The goal for us was to win in the SUNYAC and I feel like this was the next step to get a win at the regionals. Now we just keep pushing forward." - Andrew Huffman
Brockport 6, Susquehanna 8 – Final
Starting on the mound for the Green and Gold in the second game of the day was Matthew Colucci. Colucci pitched 5.0 innings, let up three hits, four runs, four walks and struck out six batters.
Susquehanna struck first, scoring three runs in the bottom of the first inning. Brockport responded in the second inning with a pair of runs to make it a 3-2 score. Voight got the bats going with a double to the left center. James Houlahan singled down the right foul line, which scored Voight and moved Pangburn to third. Genau then laid down a sacrifice bunt that sent Pangburn home for the second run of the inning.
Susquehanna scored another run in the bottom of the fourth, to lead 4-2, but once again the Golden Eagles had an answer. Brockport kept the battle going with another run in the top of the fifth inning. Houlahan reached first on an error, then stole second, and advanced to third on a wild pitch. Pastore doubled down the right foul line and brought home Houlahan for the run.
Now trailing, 4-3, Brockport would take its first lead of the game with two runs in the sixth. After Bigham and Ryan Mansell connected for singles to start the inning, a throwing error moved the runners into scoring position. Voight hit a big single to right field batting in both Bigham and Mansell. Brockport led Susquehanna 5-4 going into the bottom of the sixth.
Susquehanna came up big with a 4-run inning in the bottom of the seventh to reclaim its lead, 8-5. Heading into the ninth inning, the Golden Eagles needed another response offensively. Coming in to pinch hit, Brian Tietjen tried to spark a rally with a solo home run. However, with two runners on base the final out was made to shut the door on Brockport's comeback attempt. Susquehanna pulled out the 8-6 win, advancing to the final day of the regional on Sunday to face Rowan.
Anthony Lapine (L, 1-2) pitched 1.1 innings, letting up two hits, three runs and one walk. He also struck out two batters. Justin DelVecchio pitched 0.2 innings, letting up two hits, one run and one walk. Cooper Meldrim pitched 1.0 innings, letting up no hits, no runs and one walk.
The Golden Eagles conclude the 2023 season with an overall record of 29-18 after its second straight trip to the NCAA Championships Regional Round. They won the SUNYAC Title this year for the sixth time in program history and the first since 2010.
