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Game of the Week Powered by Ken Kortright State Farm: Farmingdale State Wins Second Straight Skyline Conference Championship

by Trevor Dugan

A stellar pitching performance and some late game heroics lifted Farmingdale State over the United States Merchant Marine Academy, 5-2, on Sunday to capture their second consecutive Skyline Conference Championship and extend their win streak to 21 games. 

The 2026 conference title is the 10th in program history for Farmingdale State, the most of any school in the Skyline Conference. 

“It’s tough to win a championship, even tougher to win two in a row, so this is a win for the program” Farmingdale State head coach Keith Osik said after the win. “This is our 10th championship, and today they were playing for the players and coaches who came before and laid the groundwork for our program to succeed.”

Senior starting pitcher Derek Watts pitched with the lead for most of the game and turned in a solid 7.2 inning performance during which he allowed just two runs on eight hits. 

The Rams gave him an early 1-0 cushion in the top of the second, when freshman center fielder Matt Faraone led the inning off with a single and came around to score on an RBI groundout by senior catcher Ryan Plocker. 

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Watts and his USMMA counterpart, Eddie Lippert, traded scoreless frames until the fifth inning, when Farmingdale State struck again and chased Lippert from the game. Ryan Wasserman made it 2-0 with an RBI single to right field, and the Rams threatened to stretch the lead even further when junior Richie Heyder, the Skyline Conference Player of the Year, strode to the plate with two runners on and two outs. 

Heyder sent a deep fly ball to the left-center field gap, which would have easily scored both runners, but was robbed of an extra-base hit as USMMA freshman center fielder Axel Prechel tracked it down and made the catch while crashing into the wall. His web gem kept things close at 2-0 heading into the bottom of the fifth. 

After a game’s worth of struggles against Watts, USMMA finally got to him in the bottom of the eighth when junior shortstop Landon Troutt doubled to right-center field before scoring on a moonshot, two-run home run by sophomore left fielder Luke Kruer that tied things at 2-2. After Kruer’s home run Farmingdale State replaced Watts with junior Thomas O’Neill, who recorded the final out of the eighth. 

Farmingdale State wasted no time retaking the lead in the top of the ninth, loading the bases with two singles and a walk to Heyder. With one out, the freshman Faraone came through with his second hit of the day, an RBI single up the middle to give the defending champs a 3-2 lead. Two more runs scored in the inning on freshman John Francisco’s pinch hit bloop single to center field that found grass between three scrambling USMMA defenders to give Farmingdale State a comfortable 5-2 lead.  

“It was a big situation, but our team thrives under pressure,” Faraone said. “I expected something in the zone since he wanted to get ahead, and I jumped on a pitch early, and that’s all I needed to do.”

O’Neill pitched a 1-2-3 bottom of the ninth for Farmingdale State to secure the team’s second straight Skyline Conference Championship and an automatic bid to the Division-III College Baseball Championship Regionals, triggering pandemonium in the stands and a massive dogpile in front of home plate. 

“Our motto here is ‘refuse to lose’” O”Neill explained, “We started conference play 0-4, had our bumps and bruises, but as we continued and bought into the motto, that’s what really held us together…the message from the coaches was always there, it was just a matter of time.”

After earning the win in Game 1 of the tournament, and locking down the save in Sunday’s championship game, O’Neill was named Skyline Conference Championship MVP.

Farmingdale State will find out which opponent awaits them at the Division III College Baseball Championship Regionals Monday, May 11 at noon, when the NCAA announces the tournament’s matchups. They have now won 21 consecutive games with their last loss coming on March 30 against Manhattanville.