By Anthony DiCocco
It was an action-packed Friday in the world of college baseball, with seven local teams competing. Let’s take a look at how the matchups unfolded.
Division I:
Albany 1, St. John’s 2 F/15
SEAN BRITT‼️‼️
JOHNNIES WALK IT OFF IN THE 15th‼️🔴⛈️#RedStorm pic.twitter.com/xy0TF4zAdC
— St. John’s Baseball (@StJohnsBaseball) March 7, 2026
The Red Storm and Great Danes battled in a 15-inning marathon. With Dylan Banner dealing to start the game for Albany, St. John’s finally broke through in the fifth inning due to a rare mistake. To lead off the frame, Ayden Frey advanced to second base on a throwing error by Banner before Rob Mansour singled him home to make it 1-0.
In the top of the seventh inning, the Great Danes scratched a run across the board against Liam O’Leary. Patrick DeSarno picked up a single and made it all the way to third base following a steal and a sacrifice bunt. With two outs, John Vitucci notched a run batted in (RBI) to tie the score.
The score remained deadlocked through nine innings and beyond. In the top of the 13th, Albany put runners at the corners against Victor Frederick, but he got Levi McAllister to ground into a double play to end the threat.
Once the bottom of the 15th inning came around, Sean Britt called game. With Zach Nawaldi on the mound, Dylan Fitzsimmons and Will Cowan reached base via a single and a walk, respectively, setting the stage for Britt to score Fitzsimmons with a walk-off single.
Each team turned out stellar pitching performances from both its starters and bullpens. For Albany, Banner struck out six batters over 6 ⅓ innings while allowing an unearned run, five hits and two walks. Through 7 ⅔ scoreless frames in relief, Matthew Mariano pitched to five hits and five punch outs.
O’Leary put together another masterful outing, as he twirled seven innings of one-run baseball to the tune of six hits, eight strikeouts and one walk. Jack Nestler did not surrender a hit across 3 ⅓ innings out of the pen while both walking and striking two Great Danes. Frederick went 4 ⅓ scoreless innings with four strikeouts and surrendered three hits and a walk.
Tyler Longoria earned the win after getting one out.
Britt and Mansour each tallied an RBI for the Johnnies, while Vitucci was the Great Danes’ lone source of offense with one of his own.
St. John’s and Albany will continue their series at 2 p.m. on Saturday.
Northeastern 4, Stony Brook 0
In their home opener, the Seawolves’ lineup could not solve Robbie O’Connor. The right-hander diced Stony Brook up across seven shutout frames, as he punched out eight batters while giving up just two hits and a walk.
With O’Connor’s dominant performance, the Huskies’ offense did more than enough to help the team cruise to a victory. In the top of the second inning, Aidyn Coffey committed a throwing error to put Cooper Tarantino on first base, who immediately stole both second and third before eventually scoring on a sacrifice fly.
In the bottom of the fourth, the command issues that plagued Micah Worley all day reared their ugly head. The southpaw walked a pair of Huskies and ended up balking them both into scoring position. Ty Panariello was brought in with two outs to try to get out of the mess, but he threw a wild pitch to make it 2-0.
Following the errand pitch, Panariello kept Northeastern in check for a while before his defense let him down in the eighth. After allowing a pair of singles, Panariello got Harrison Feinberg to hit a double-play ball, but Johnny Pilla’s throw to first went awry to bring another run home and prolong the frame.
Reilly Bridges allowed a leadoff triple in the ninth to Tarantino, paving the way for Chris Walsh to drive him in with a single into center field.
However, the game was already out of reach at that point. To piggyback off O’Connor, Andrew Basel pitched two scoreless and hitless frames to secure the save.
Walsh was the Huskies top performer at the plate, going 2-for-3 with two RBIs, a run scored and a stolen base. Tarantino’s speed was on display with a triple, two steals and two runs.
Matthew Jackson and Chris Carson both singled for Stony Brook’s only hits in the game. While Worley struck out five and did not allow a hit in 3 ⅔ innings, he walked six batters and allowed two runs (one earned). Panariello went 4 ⅓ innings in relief to the tune of an unearned run, four hits, four strikeouts and a walk.
The Seawolves will attempt to even the series at 2 p.m. on Saturday.
Charleston 5, Hofstra 1
The Pride struggled out of the gate on Friday in South Carolina. Sean Hamilton walked the leadoff batter before surrendering consecutive singles to start the game. With the bases still loaded two batters later, Ethan Plyler struck a double into right-center field to break the ice and give the Cougars a 2-0 lead.
Reece Holbrook then led off the second inning with a single and wound up at third base after a passed ball and groundout, allowing Jake Amman to deliver a sacrifice fly.
Charleston got its leadoff man on base for three consecutive innings, as Braeden Smith tripled. With runners now at the corners, Smith came home to score on a double play.
With Jackson Bauer on in relief for Hamilton in the fifth, Dylan Johnson crushed a leadoff homer to left field to extend the Cougars’ advantage to 5-0.
In the bottom of the ninth inning, Sam Leonard broke the shutout with an RBI single, but it was far too little, too late.
Carter Harrington was rock solid for the Cougars, as he allowed two hits and struck out five batters over five shutout frames despite walking four. Ryan Hench, Kaden Myers and Kurt Rogers combined to pitch to one run, four hits, a walk and five strikeouts across four frames.
Hamilton allowed four runs (three earned), five hits and a walk over three frames. From the bullpen, Bauer surrendered four hits, a run and a walk while punching out three in four innings pitched.
Daniel Escalante recorded three of Hofstra’s six hits, while Leonard drove in their only run.
Smith and Johnson each notched two hits with a triple and homer, respectively, while Plyler added two RBIs and a double.
The Pride will continue to hunt for their first win of the young season at 1 p.m. on Saturday.
Division II:
Post 1, Molloy 11 F/7
After a brief back-and-forth start, the Lions ran away with this one to run-rule the Eagles. With the game tied at one apiece in the bottom of the third inning, Mike Sweeney blasted a two-run bomb off Justin Hascup to give Molloy a 3-1 lead.
Later in the inning, the Lions got two men on base. Though Hascup picked Sean Welsh off at first base, Sean Serrano scored on the play to tack on another run.
With two Lions on and one out in the fifth inning, Jack Coogan ripped an RBI single through the left side off Gavin Diegnan.
With the bases empty and no one out in the bottom of the sixth, Andrew Rhymestine dropped a foul ball behind the plate to keep the inning alive. The Lions made them pay, as they immediately loaded the bases. From there, Welsh singled in a run before Coogan doubled home a pair.
In the seventh, Molloy juiced the bases again against Diegnan. Dalton Wright took over and hurled a wild pitch to bring a run home, allowing Brian Sanchez to then double in the final two runs of the game for a walk-off via the mercy rule.
Coogan led the team with three RBIs, while Sweeney and Sanchez each added two. Steve Mulqueen homered and Welsh also tacked on an RBI.
James Sill dealt for Molloy, pitching to one run, eight strikeouts and two walks in six innings. On the other side, Hascup surrendered four runs on five hits in three frames.
Molloy’s weekend at the Lynn Invitational will continue with a 10:30 a.m. bout against the host team — Lynn University — on Saturday.
Adelphi 12, Dominican 1 F/7
To kick off their weekend, the Panthers earned their first victory of the season, which also marked Mike Gaffney’s first win as Adelphi’s head coach.
After drawing first blood in the second inning, the Panthers erupted for five runs in the third. Luis Rivera allowed a single before walking a pair of batters to fill the bases for Johnny Catuosco, who plated two runs with a double.
Albert Ramos picked up an RBI with a groundout during the ensuing at-bat before Bryan McCleary, Matt Ryan and Michael Robinson strung three straight singles together to make it 6-0.
The Chargers got a run back in the fourth, but Adelphi washed it away and more soon after. With two runners on in the top of the sixth, Zach DeMilt and James Eden pieced back-to-back singles together to extend the lead to 8-1.
The Panthers added two more runs in the frame via a wild pitch and double play. During the following inning, another Eden single and double play helped the Panthers add insult to injury.
Eden, Robinson, McCleary and DeMilt picked up two hits apiece. Like Eden, Catuosco collected two RBIs and his double was Adelphi’s only extra-base hit on the day.
Fraelyn Rosario notched two hits, including a double, and an RBI for the Chargers.
On the bump. John Carver walked five batters and allowed four hits, but surrendered just one run while striking out five over five innings for Adelphi. For Dominican, Rivera coughed up six runs (five earned) on six hits and three walks.
As the Cary Invitational rolls on, the Panthers will lock horns with Wayne State at 11 a.m. on Saturday.
Division III:
Game 1: St. Joseph’s 9, Houghton 5 F/7
Game 2: Houghton 15, St. Joseph’s 5 F/7
In the opener, the Golden Eagles were able to complete a comeback. While down 4-0 after the first inning, St. Joseph’s put two runs on the board in the second before the Golden Eagles soared in the sixth.
With two runners on and one out against Chris Gross, St. Joseph’s plated a run with an error. Isaiah Wood relieved Gross and immediately got a strikeout, but Paul McNally stole second, allowing Joe Thatcher to dart home on the throw to knot the score at 4-4.
Immediately after, Ty Kenney committed his second error of the frame to plate the go-ahead run.
Andrew Amarando stole second and third after leading off the seventh with a single, paving the way for Joe Hackal to single him home. After a single and hit-by-pitch combined to load the bases, McNally sent a bases-clearing triple to center to make it 9-4.
John Perino struggled in the bottom of the frame, as he walked a batter, hit one and served up a single to fill the bases before walking home a run. However, Ryan Reynolds entered with three ducks still on the pond and got Vincent Lucyszyn, who was the tying run at the plate, to go down swinging to end the game.
In the second half of the doubleheader, Houghton posted a six spot in the first inning. After JD Robinson was hit to start the game, Justin Jaskolski coughed up an RBI double and single to Qingyang Feng and Christian Tortorici, respectively.
With the bases loaded soon after, Jaskolski hurled a wild pitch to score a run before Willan Armes cracked a two-run double into left field. Jaskolski got a strikeout during the next at-bat, but Kenney reached on the wild pitch. After Jaskolski hit Derek Ebersole, he was yanked for Matt Williams, who allowed an RBI on a groundout before escaping the jam without any further damage.
After the Golden Eagles got a run back in the bottom of the first, Tortorici stole home in the second on a double steal before Nate Hall singled a run in.
In the third, Williams allowed the first two runners to reach base, prompting St. Joseph’s to turn to Perino. Feng greeted him with an RBI double before Tortorici belted a three-run tank over the center field fence.
From that point on, the Golden Eagles outscored the Highlanders 4-3 in garbage time, but the game was already well out of reach.
Houghton received solid outings from both of its starters. Gross allowed five runs (three earned) on five hits and three walks, but struck out 10 batters in 5 ⅓ innings. In game two, Conner Benitez pitched to four runs (three earned), four hits, three walks and six punch outs across 5 ⅔ frames.
For St. Joseph’s, Ryan Callaghan surrendered four first inning runs on four hits and a hit-by-pitch, but allowed one hit over five scoreless frames to end his day. He struck out six batters. Jaskolski recorded just one out in his start, allowing six runs on four hits, a walk and two hit batsmen.
Amarando added three hits in game one while McNally drove in four runs. Dom Crema added two RBIs and John Margolies tallied one. Nick Gerardi notched two RBIs in the second half with Michael Empaynado chipping in another.
Across both games, Weng totaled three hits, with one being a four-bagger, and four RBIs. Tortorici collected three hits and five RBIs with a homer. Hall, Armes, Matt Riddell and Tobias Waldridge all tallied two RBIs, while Robinson bagged one.
As they stay in Myrtle Beach, S.C., the Golden Eagles will play a doubleheader against Bridgewater State starting at 3 p.m. on Saturday.
Maritime 4, RIT 5 F/17
While down 2-0 after seven innings, the Privateers got even by tallying a run apiece in the eighth and ninth.
Each team traded blows in the 12th inning before Maritime pulled ahead in the 17th. Owen Weber registered a single, allowing Joey Goodman to double home the go-ahead run. However, it was not enough, as the Tigers stormed back for two runs in the bottom of the stanza to walk off the Privateers.
After losing a lengthy heartbreaker, Maritime will aim for its first win of the season when it begins a doubleheader with Rochester on Saturday morning. First pitch for game one is set for 9:30 a.m. from Auburndale, Fla.
