Game 1 Box / Game 2 Box
TROY, N.Y. – Senior first baseman Ken Carroll (Shelton, CT/Fairfield Prep.) tied a school record with two home runs in the one game to lead the 10th-ranked Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute (RPI) baseball team to a doubleheader sweep of Union College at Robison Field. The Red Hawks, who won by scores of 10-6 and 12-2, improve to 23-4 overall, including 12-2 the Liberty League. The Dutchmen fall to 3-16, with a 1-14 mark in league play.
Game one remained close until the fourth inning when the Red Hawks scored seven times. With the score tied 3-3 heading into the bottom of the stanza, Rensselaer sent 11 men to the plate, scoring seven times on six hits. Only one of the runs was charged to Dutchmen starting pitcher Matt Sheehan (Lexington, MA/Belmont Hill), who was removed with two outs in the inning. He finished the day allowing seven runs (3 earned) on seven hits over 3.2 innings of work.
Scott Carroll (Scituate, MA/Scituate) sparked a three-run Union fifth to draw the visitors to within four by singling with one out in the inning. Zach Tillo (Lancaster, MA/Exeter) followed with a double before Paul Mene (Falls Church, VA/George Mason) drove in a pair with a single. Dane Flavin (Schenectady, NY/Hofstra University) finished off the scoring with an RBI double.
Senior Joe Zongol (Flower Mound, TX/Southington) picked up the victory on the hill for RPI, surrendering six runs (4 earned) on 10 hits in 5.0 innings. He struck out five and walked none. Junior right-hander Andrew Novick (Hopwell Junction, NY/John Jay) earned his first save of the year, as he completed 2.0 innings of one-hit ball, after entering the game with two on and none out in the sixth.
Five different Red Hawks recorded at least two hits, including Carroll, who went 2 for 4 with two doubles and an RBI, and Jim Devine (Castleton, NY/Columbia), who finished 2 for 4 with a triple and an RBI.
Game two saw Rensselaer starter Tim Klein (Westwood, NJ/St. Joseph Regional) deliver a strong outing, at one point getting 17 batters out in a row. He pitched a complete game, giving up two ninth inning runs, on five hits and a walk, while striking out six.
The Red Hawks scored two in the first three innings before putting up three in each of the sixth and seventh and four in the eighth. Carroll hit a two-run homerun in the three-run sixth and drove in all three RPI runs in the seventh with three-run shot. He finished the game 3 for 4 with two home runs, three runs scored and five runs batted in.
Union’s Brian McLaughlin (Norwood, NJ/Old Tappan) took the loss, surrendering five runs on 13 hits over 6.0 innings of work. He struck out two and did not walk a batter. The Dutchmen were led offensively by Flavin, who went 2 for 3 with a run, and Mene, who went 1 for 4 with a run and an RBI.
The two teams meet again Sunday afternoon, when they play a doubleheader at Joe Bruno Stadium. The games, which will be hosted by Union, begin at 12pm. They can be heard live on WRPI, 91.5 FM, and www.wrpi.org.
