GARDEN CITY, N.Y. – Pitching in his hometown, Bentley University grad student Rob Finneran (Garden City, N.Y./Garden City HS) struck out nine and scattered seven hits en route to his fourth career shutout, a 2-0 blanking of Adelphi University in a Northeast-10 Conference non-divisional game at Bonomo Field Saturday afternoon.

Finneran, who missed all of last season following Tommy John surgery, won his fourth straight start and lowered his ERA to 1.87 while moving into second on Bentley's career strikeout list with 181, eight shy of the school record owned by Corey Bazylinski (1996-99).

The graduate student, now an impressive 17-6 for his career, allowed only two hits in 10 at bats with a runner on base, walked only one and did not allow anyone past second. The Panthers threatened with two on and one out in the sixth and a leadoff double in the seventh, but both times, Finneran shut the door.

The victory was the fifth in the last six games and the eighth in the last ten for the Falcons, who improved to 10-11 overall and 10-4 against NCAA Division II East Region teams. Adelphi, after being swept in the two-game series, dropped to 8-7 overall.

All of the game's scoring came during the fifth inning with both runs unearned as the result of a fielding error on a bunt attempt.  Bentley senior shortstop Vinnie Eruzione (Winthrop, Mass./Winthrop HS) reached on that miscue, was sacrificed to second and moved to third on a single to center by freshman center fielder Mike Muir (Bridgewater, Mass./Bridgewater HS).

Junior second baseman Logan Gillis (Merrimack, N.H./Lawrence Academy) drove in Eruzione with the game's first run with a single to left. Later in the inning, a wild pitch allowed Muir to race home with Bentley's second run.

Senior catcher Kevin Korwek (Madison, Conn./Daniel Hand HS) had three of Bentley's nine hits, and Gillis had two, pushing his average up to .329 and extending his hitting streak to 10 games.

Bentley will play a doubleheader at Pace University Sunday with the first pitch set for12 noon.