Game 1 Box / Game 2 Box
CANTON, N.Y. - Senior pitcher Joe Zongol scattered six hits and struck out eight for his fourth win of the season as #9 Rensselaer opened its four-game Liberty League series at St. Lawrence with a 8-2 win on Tom Fay Field on a cold and blustery afternoon. SLU came back in the second game, winning 4-3 to snap RPI's 14-game winning streak.
RPI is now 20-2 overall and 9-1 in league play, while the Saints are 10-11 and 6-5 in the Liberty League heading into Monday’s second set of games.
Zongol (Flower Mound, TX/Southington) improved to 4-1 on the year, allowing two unearned runs, and the Red Hawks won their 20th and remained perfect in the Liberty League with the first-game win. Sean Wilkes (Troy, NY/Catholic Central), Jim Devine (Castleton, NY/Columbia), Dan Valentine (Goshen, CT/Avon Old Farms) and Ken Carroll (Shelton, CT/Fairfield Prep) all had two hits each in the game and combined for seven runs driven in.
RPI opened the scoring in the top of the first as Wilkes singled and was driven in on a single by Valentine. The Saints came back with two in the bottom of the second to take a 2-1 lead as catcher Rob Tole, who had two of the Saints’ six hits, singled in both runs.
The Red Hawks put the game away with seven runs in the top of the fifth against Saints starter Troy Lassial. Wilkes singled in two runs, Devine had a run-scoring triple and Carroll singled in two in the big inning.
In game two, seniors Joe Shehata and Charlie Cannan each hit their first career home runs to back a solid six-inning performance by junior pitcher Jeff Graceffo as St. Lawrence handed Rensselaer its first league loss in game two.
The Saints took a 1-0 lead when Shehata hit RPI senior starter Tim Klein’s (Westwood, NJ/St. Joseph Regional) second pitch of the inning out of the park in the bottom of the third.
RPI came right back with two in the top of the fourth as Patrick Reardon (Troy, NY/LaSalle Institute) hit his third homer of the year on Graceffo’s first pitch of the inning and Carroll tripled and scored on Matt Muscatiello’s (Kinderhook, NY/Ichabod Crane) single.
The Saints tied it in the bottom of the fourth when Cannan hit his first collegiate homer with two out in the inning, but RPI went back in front in the top of the fifth on Valentine’s single and a run-scoring hit by Camden Marmigonian (Dover, NH/Dover).
SLU took the lead for good in the bottom of the fifth with a walk, a misplayed sacrifice bunt, a sacrifice fly by Tim Harris and a single by Christian Spicer.
Graceffo pitched through the sixth and Chris Cook shut the Red Hawks down the rest of the way, allowing two hits in the final three innings for his first collegiate save. Andrew Novick (Hopewell Junction, NY/John Jay) pitched two innings of scoreless relief for RPI.
