Box Score
TROY, N.Y. – Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute (RPI) junior Joe Zongol (Flower Mound, TX/Southington) allowed one earned run with 11 strikeouts to pitch the Red Hawks to a 5-3 win over the University of Rochester in the first elimination game of the four-team, double elimination Liberty League Tournament at Robison Field.
RPI, the top seed, improves to 29-9 and advances to face St. Lawrence, which lost to Skidmore, 6-3 in the winners’ bracket game, at 4pm on Saturday. Rochester ends its season at 21-17.
Following a first inning in which he allowed two runs (1 earned) on three walks and a hit batsman, Zongol settled down to walk just one more and allow seven hits while pitching into the ninth inning to improve to 6-1. Six of the hits he allowed were singles. Junior Tim Klein (Westwood, NJ/St. Joseph Regional), who entered the game in the ninth inning with a runner on first base, got the final three outs for his seventh save of the year.
After the visiting Yellowjackets scored their two runs, Rensselaer answered with four of its own in the bottom of the first inning. The big blow of the frame, which featured five hits, was a two-run double by sophomore third baseman Jim Devine (Castleton, NY/East Greeenbush).
Rochester pulled to within one run, 4-3, in the third inning when junior catcher Devin Shane (Bedford, NH/Manchester West) singled home Dan Brien (Liverpool, NY/Liverpool), who had doubled. The Red Hawks, the 17th-ranked team in the nation, got the run right back, however, when Devine drove a pitch over the rightfield wall for his fourth home run of the season.
Devine was 2 for 4 with two runs and three runs batted in and Patrick Reardon (Troy, NY/LaSalle Institute) also had two hits for the home team, going 2 for 3 with a run batted in. Six other players had single hits for RPI.
For Rochester, Shane was 3 for 4 with an RBI and four others had one hit apiece. Junior starter Peter McEneaney (New York, NY/Collegiate) allowed five runs, all earned, and ten hits with three strikeouts in the loss. He is now 5-5.
