SETTERS SPLIT DOUBLEHEADER WITH MERRIMACK ON SENIOR DAY

PLEASANTVILLE, NY - The Pace University baseball team split their final two homes games of the 2009 season on senior day against the Warriors of Merrimack College. The Setters took the first game 10-5, but fell in the nightcap 8-6 on Saturday afternoon at Finnerty Field. The Setters finish the season with a 14-11-1 record at home at Finnerty Field.

The results of today's games will move Pace to 20-29-1 for the season, and 14-16 in the NE-10 Conference. The Warriors after today will move to 19-27 for the year, and 10-19 in conference play.

In game one, the Setters took an early 3-0 lead thanks to the effort of a couple Pace seniors. JJ Conrad (Hamburg, NJ/Wallkill Valley) (Hamburg, NJ/Wallkill Valley) led off the inning with a single up the middle. Chris Spatkowski (Bristol, CT/Bristol Eastern) followed with another single to right field to put runners on the corners with no outs. Senior Andre Liscinsky (Trumbull, CT/Trumbull) drove in the first Pace run of the day on a RBI single to shortstop. With two outs now in the inning, and Spatkowski standing on third, senior Joe Cotone (Yorktown Heights, NY/Lakeland) blasted a two-run homerun to left field  to make the score 3-0 Pace after one.

Merrimack slowly started to chip away at the Setter lead scoring runs in the second, fourth, and fifth innings off Pace starter Zach Dayton (North Falmouth, MA/Falmouth) (North Falmouth, MA/Falmouth) to tie the score at 3-3 after five and a half.

The Warriors would eventually take the lead off Dayton in the top of the sixth inning as they scored two more runs in the inning on two hits. Dayton's day would end in this inning as he pitched five and two thirds innings giving up five runs (three earned) on nine hits. He struck out one, and walked two in his final start as a Setter.

The Setters didn't let their ace end his career with a loss as the Pace offense rallied for Dayton in the bottom half of the sixth inning. The two big hits in the inning came on a two RBI single by Spatkowski, and a RBI single by the senior Liscinsky to make the score 7-5 after six innings.

Eric Brown (Norwalk, CT/Norwalk) (Norwalk, CT/Norwalk) (3-1) took care of the rest for Pace as he pitched three and a third shutout innings of brilliant relief to pick up the win.

The second game saw the Warriors jump all over senior starting pitcher Nicholas DeMeo (Farmingville, NY/Sachem East) (Farmingville, NY/Sachem East) (1-3) to build an 8-1 lead after seven innings.

Pace made it interesting in the bottom of the eighth scoring five runs but it wasn't enough as the Setters fell in game two 8-6.

Liscinsky had an excellent day on his final day playing at Finnerty Field in his Pace career as he went 6-for-9 on the day with five RBI's, and a run scored.

Pace has one more game left in their 2009 season as they will travel to North Andover, Mass. tomorrow to take on these same Warriors. The game is scheduled to start at 1:00 p.m.