Box Score
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KINGS POINT, N.Y. (May 2, 2021) – The U.S. Merchant Marine Academy baseball team has won the Skyline Conference Regular Season Championship and clinched the #1 seed in the upcoming Skyline Tournament with a 12-3 home victory over Farmingdale State on Sunday afternoon at Bartoszek Field.
 
This is the program's first-ever outright conference regular season title (they tied for a regular season championship in 2013 in the Landmark Conference), and this is the first time the Mariners (13-3, 12-3 Skyline) will host a conference tournament in their first year eligible (by conference rule, stadium lights are needed for hosting and this is the team's first year with lights at "The Ray").
 
The Rams (11-11, 10-8 Skyline) opened the scoring in the top of the first with three singles, including an RBI-knock with one out by freshman Jordan Lambert, but senior starter Ben Kane (Huntington Beach, Calif.) was able to get the final two outs without surrendering more.
 
The Mariners responded in the bottom half of the inning with two runs thanks to a one-out triple by junior Brayden O'Connell (Beaver Dams, N.Y.) followed by an RBI-single by junior Zach Coutts (Grand Junction, Colo.), who later came around to score on a sacrifice fly by senior Colin Baker (Clyde Hill, Wash.). They tacked on one more run in the second when senior Jack McCann (Newark, Del.) scored on a wild pitch.
 
In the top of the fourth, Farmingdale came back to within one run on a leadoff home run, the first homer to go over the fence at Bartoszek Field, by junior Ryan DePalma. Merchant Marine got that run right back in the next half-inning on a double by O'Connell that plated McCann to make it 4-2.
 
USMMA hung four more on the scoreboard in the fifth including the final two on a "little league home run" by senior Jacob Kelly (Norfolk, Va.). He knocked in McCann from second with a single up the middle, advanced to second on the throw and then the FSC catcher's throw wound up travelling almost to the centerfield warning track, allowing Kelly to easily score from second to make it 8-2.
 
The Mariners went on to score three more in the seventh and one in the eighth to cruise to the victory.
 
McCann led the Mariners on the afternoon, going 3-for-3 at the plate with three RBIs and four runs scored. O'Connell finished 3-for-5 with a double and a triple, driving in one and scoring once. Five other Mariners knocked in one run each, including Baker, who also scored twice.
 
Kane got the start and pitched 2.2 innings, giving up one run on six hits with one strikeout. Junior Billy Tood (Gastonia, N.C.) replaced him in the third and lasted 1.1 innings into the fifth, giving up a run on one hit, before classmate Quinton Heck (Massillon, Ohio) came in three batters into the fifth and got out of a jam before earning the victory with two solid innings of relief, allowing just one run on two hits with on K.
 
Senior Andrew Hunt (Severna Park, Md.) picked up his seventh save of the season, his sixth three-inning save of the year, after pitching the seventh, eighth and ninth giving up just one hit and striking out two.
 
For the Rams, DePalma finished the day 3-for-4 with an RBI and two runs scored, while freshman Philip Gerard was 2-for-4 with an RBI. Farmingdale used a total of nine pitchers on the day with the starter, freshman Tyler Loft suffering the loss despite pitching just 0.2 innings, as he gave up two runs on three hits. Junior Stephen Clancy lasted the longest in relief, firing three innings of two-run ball on four hits with four strikeouts.
 
More information on the upcoming Skyline Conference Tournament, which USMMA will host at Bartoszek Field May 7-9, will be available early next week both on www.SkylineConference.org and www.USMMASports.com.
 
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