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 Genauput 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 Bighamgrounded 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