Herkimer College Generals aiming for another Region III baseball title

LITTLE FALLS – Postseason play is upon us for college’s bat and ball sports, and Herkimer College’s Generals enter Region III’s baseball playoffs as the No. 1 seed from the east once again.

The Generals (32-5) already have topped 30 wins for the ninth time in 10 seasons and moved up to No. 6 in the NJCAA’s Division III rankings by winning two of three games against Rowan College of South Jersey-Gloucester last weekend at Veterans Memorial Park. A sweep of Saturday’s doubleheader extended the Herkimer winning streak to 24 games before a loss Sunday afternoon, and the results pushed Herkimer up three spots on the national poll while Gloucester dropped from No. 1 to the spot behind the Generals.

Best-of-three sub-regional play sends Herkimer back to Veterans Memorial Park Saturday for its first two games against Onondaga Community College (26-15), the No. 4 team from Region III’s west.

Region III’s playoffs feature eight teams, four from the east and four from the west. The winners of this weekend’s four sub-regional series head to double-elimination Final Four play next weekend.

Herkimer will be trying to win its first regional title since winning back-to-back in 2018 and 2019. There was no 2020 season and the Generals were runners-up last year to Niagara County Community College, the No. 2 team from the west this year and the NJCAA’s fifth-ranked team.

The Generals, who finished a 32-4 season with two losses in regional play last year, had won five titles in 10 years and seven over 14 prior to the coronavirus pandemic.

Division I-bound pitchers Greg Farone and Ryan Packard lead Herkimer in the 2022 playoffs.

Packard, a third-year freshman coming back from Tommy John surgery and committed to the University of Dayton, has been dominant in his first college season, winning each of his seven starts and adding a win and a save in two relief appearances. The hard-throwing right-hander has allowed three earned runs on 16 hits and 11 walks in 40 1/3 innings while striking out 63 batters; he owns a 0.67 ERA.

Baseball: Greg Farone throws Herkimer College's second perfect game of season

Baseball: Herkimer College pitching perfect on a not-so-perfect day

The left-handed Farone has committed to the University of Louisville and has been almost untouchable since being charged with nine earned runs in back-to-back starts early in the season. He is 4-0 with a 2.43 ERA in seven starts and has struck out 87 batters in 37 innings, an average of more than 21 per nine, the scheduled length of NJCAA postseason games. Farone has allowed one run on eight hits and three walks in 24 innings in his last four starts while striking out 55 batters.

Packard and Farone each has a perfect game this spring.

Left-hander Ethan Patch, the likely starter in a third game, if necessary, is 4-1 with a 2.45 ERA and joins Joel Hayner, Derek Hotzler and Jake Lombardi as strikeout-per-inning starting options.

The Generals also score plenty of runs. They have hit .352 as a team with 61 home runs in 37 games. Herkimer ranks ninth in the nation in team batting average, fifth in on-base percentage (.475) and first in slugging (.627).

Leadoff hitter Kyle Caccamise reaches base at a .532 rate – he is batting .393 with 44 runs scored – and sets the stage for a lineup that features Dakota Britt has hit 13 home runs while slugging .900, third in the nation, scoring 44 runs and driving home 46; his .418 batting average leads the team. Sal Carricato is batting .400 with nine home runs and 41 RBI, Tre Miller is batting .385 and leads the team with 21 stolen bases, and Ethan Duda has hit eight home runs. Two-way freshman Mike Gunning has 10 home runs in 81 at-bats along with a .407 average and .864 slugging percentage.

Jovani Wiggs, another freshman, was one of the heroes against Gloucester last weekend. He broke a scoreless tie with a bases-loaded triple to ignite an eight-run sixth inning in Saturday’s second game. Farone pitched a four-hit shutout in his showdown with Joe Marino, another high profile left-hander.

Herkimer scored 10 runs in the third inning of the first game and won 12-2 in five, ending an 11-game Gloucester winning streak while extending its own to 24. Gloucester avoided a sweep with an 8-6 win in Sunday’s nine-inning finale; the Roadrunners scored three runs in the top of the ninth inning after the Generals had taken a 6-5 lead in the eighth.

The Generals closed the regular season by beating Mohawk Valley Community College 2-1 and 8-5 Tuesday in Utica. Caccamise singled, doubled, walked twice and scored both runs in the first game, while Josh Duval broke up the shutout and a no-hit bid with his single in the seventh inning for the Hawks. The Generals scored five runs in the sixth inning and held on in the second game with Little Falls native Eddie Rogers earning the win in relief.

The other playoff qualifiers from the east are Cayuga Community College, Hudson Valley Community College and SUNY-Adirondack. Erie Community College is the top seed from the west with Finger Lakes Community College filling the final spot.

Jon Rathbun is a sportswriter for the Times Telegram. Email Jon at sports@timestelegram.com.

This article originally appeared on Times Telegram: Herkimer College aiming for another NJCAA Region III baseball title