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OLD WESTBURY, NY (www.oldwestburypanthers.com) – The SUNY College at Old Westbury baseball team used a combination of timely hitting and strong pitching to earn an 8-1 victory over the United States Merchant Marine Academy Mariners on Tuesday evening at the Jackie Robinson Athletic Complex. The win improved OW to 16-16 on the season while the Mariners fell to 5-21.

Old Westbury starter Abel Guerrero was efficient and masterful in picking up his first career win. The freshman limited the Mariners to three walks and no-hits over his five innings of work with a career-high 12 strikeouts.

Old Westbury started off the contest with back-to-back walks and a single to lead the bases for Albert Bevacqua, who reached on an error by second baseman Travis Christensen to score Jason Kondra for the first run. Josef Schaetzle then lifted a sacrifice fly over to right field to score Melvin Simmons followed by a single to left field by Edwin Pena that added Giovanni Jimenez and Bevacqua to the scoring total. Joe Manzella singled with two outs, stole second, advanced to third on a passed ball and stole home to give Old Westbury an early 5-0 lead at the end of one inning.

Two more runs were added to the Old Westbury scoring column in the third frame. Joe Manzella drove home Josef Schaetzle off a sacrifice fly to center field and Kyle Schwarz grounded out to score Edwin Pena for Old Westbury's seventh run of the game. Old Westbury tacked on their final run of the game in the fourth inning when Melvin Simmons clubbed a single to right field and advanced home on an error by Jarad Fassnacht.

William Campbell was called in to relieve Guerrero in the sixth inning and was unable to hold the no-hitter and shutout as he let up two hits, a walk and hit a batter en route to the Mariners lone run of the game. Ranser Reyes, Kevin Briffa and Frank DiMaria pitched consecutive innings to close out the game.

The win improved Abel Guerrero to 1-4 on the season while Mark Thiboldeaux took the loss and dropped to 1-4.

Melvin Simmons, Giovanni Jimenez and Edwin Pena all collected two hits and scored. Matt Rigby led the Mariners with two doubles and went 2-for-3.

The Panthers will return to the diamond for a non-conference SUNY affair with the New Paltz Hawks on Thursday, April 22 in Old Westbury, New York. First pitch is slated for 6 p.m. at the Jackie Robinson Athletic Complex.

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