Baseball Earns Fifth Doubleheader Sweep of the Season Against Hornets

CANANDAIGUA, N.Y. — The Finger Lakes Community College baseball team extended its winning streak to nine games after sweeping Sunday afternoon's doubleheader from SUNY Broome Community College at FLCC's turf complex.

FLCC (15-2, 4-0 conference record) earned a 16-2 win in five innings in the opener, then closed out its fifth doubleheader sweep of the season with a 16-6 win over the Hornets (0-2, 0-2).

Sophomores Nolan Phelan (St. Catharines, ON, Canada/Sir Winston Churchill Secondary School) and Lucas Sulimowicz (Rochester, N.Y./Greece Athena) each belted three-run, inside-the-park home runs to fuel the Lakers' attack in Game 1.

Phelan finished 2-for-2 with four RBI and two runs scored, Sulimowicz was 2-for-3 with three RBI and three runs scored, and freshman Alex Ahlstrom (Dunkirk, N.Y./Dunkirk) went 3-for-4 with two runs scored and an RBI for FLCC.

Sophomore Tyler Cerame (Hilton, N.Y./Hilton) went 2-for-4 with two runs and two RBI, classmate Kenny Murphy (Webster, N.Y./Webster Schroeder) was 2-for-3 with two RBI, and freshman Danny Melendez (Victor, N.Y./Victor) was 2-for-2 with three runs scored and an RBI for the Lakers, who had eight different student-athletes drive in runs in the win.

Sophomore Nicholas Franceschi (Geneva, N.Y./Geneva) earned the win, allowing two runs on five hits with six strikeouts over four innings. The Lakers pushed across three runs in the first inning, tacked on five more in the second, scored three in the third, and added five in the fourth.

In the second game, FLCC struck early, scoring twice in the second on a sacrifice fly from freshman Ryan Mettler (Middleport, N.Y./Royalton-Hartland) and an RBI single from sophomore Devin Cannon (Spencerport, N.Y./Spencerport).

The Hornets responded with a three-run third inning to seize their first lead of the day and pushed their lead to 5-2 with a pair of runs in the top of the fourth. But FLCC scored four runs in the fourth, seven in the fifth, and three in the sixth to seal the win.

Murphy's RBI single in the fourth snapped a 5-all tie, and in the fifth, Cerame hit an RBI double down the right field line to put the Lakers up 7-5, sophomore DJ Stoianovich (Fairport, N.Y./Fairport) added an RBI single, Murphy delivered a two-run double down the left field line, Mettler added an RBI single, and Cannon drove in a run on a double down the left field line to cap the seven-run fifth inning.

Cerame went 3-for-5 with three RBI and three runs scored, Murphy was 2-for-2 with three RBI, two stolen bases, and two runs scored, and Stoianovich went 3-for-4 with two RBI and a run scored in the second game.

Cannon was 2-for-3 with two RBI and a run scored, Melendez was 2-for-3 with three runs scored, and freshman Matthew Rodriguez (Lackawanna, N.Y./Lackawanna) scored three runs and drove in a pair of runs for FLCC.

The Lakers travel to Broome for a doubleheader Monday afternoon before returning home to host Niagara County Community College Thursday afternoon.