Auburn, N.Y. – The second-seeded Ithaca Bombers (30-12) beat the sixth-seeded Farmingdale Rams (26-18) 4-0 in Thursday’s second game of the NCAA Division III baseball regional tournament hosted by Ithaca College at Auburn’s Falcon Park. The Bombers advance to play either top-seeded Cortland or fourth-seeded Montclair State Friday at 10 a.m. in an elimination game. The Rams were eliminated from the playoffs.

Farmingdale was making the program’s first trip to the NCAA playoffs; Ithaca has made 32 NCAA Division III playoff appearances – more than any other school.

Senior Adam Brown (Greece Athena/Rochester) pitched a complete-game six-hit shutout for the Bombers. He struck out three and did not allow a Ram past second base in eight of his nine innings in tossing his third career shutout.

 

Junior center fielder Matt Samela brought in Ithaca’s first run with a two-out bases-loaded infield single in the seventh. The Bombers scored three times in the eighth to pull away behind a run-scoring ground ball by junior catcher Drew Ash (Morris Knolls/Denville, N.J.) and a two-run single by sophomore right fielder #T.J. Abone# (Rome Free Academy/Rome).

 

Samela, senior left fielder Rob Raux (Ilion/Frankfort), senior shortstop Josh Smith (Pulaski/Richland) and senior first baseman Eric Ferguson (Columbia/East Greenbush) each had two hits. Raux also stole two bases; his two hits raise his career total to 219 – one short of the school record set by all-American Vince Roman (1987-1990).

 

Jesse Scott was the hard-luck loser for Farmingdale, giving up six hits over 6.2 innings. He helped his own cause by picking a pair of Bombers off base in the first and left with the bases loaded in the seventh. Samela – who made a diving catch in right-center field with the bases loaded in the bottom of the sixth to keep the game scoreless – hit a slow roller between the mound and third base off the Rams’ first reliever to bring in the winning run.