Game 1 Box / Game 2 Box
TROY, N.Y. – Eric Redding’s one-out single in the ninth inning scored the game-winning run in the second game of a doubleheader and the No. 19 Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute (RPI) baseball team swept a Liberty League twinbill from Skidmore College at Robison Field. RPI won the first game, 3-1, behind a complete game by senior Joe Zongol before twice coming back for a 7-6 victory in the nightcap.
Trailing 6-4 heading into the ninth inning, Rensselaer’s Matt Muscatiello (Kinderhook, NY/Ichabod Crane) doubled to lead off the inning and Sean Wilkes (Troy, NY/Catholic Central) followed with a single, putting runners on first and second. After the next batter struck out, Dan Valentine (Goshen, CT/Avon Old Farms) and Patrick Reardon (Troy, NY/LaSalle Institute) followed with RBI singles to tie the game, 6-6. Redding (Kerhonkson, NY/Rondout Valley), a senior who was pinch hitting, then blooped an 0-1 pitch over the third baseman’s head down the leftfield line that scored Valentine.
Valentine, a senior rightfielder, finished the game by going 5 for 5 with five singles, two runs scored and an RBI, while Reardon, a sophomore designated hitter, was 3 for 5, including a three-run home run to right field in a four-run sixth inning, and four runs batted in. Reardon’s home run capped a four-run RPI sixth that erased a 4-0 Red Hawks deficit.
Sophomore Andrew Mondo (Clifton Park, NY/Shenendehowa) earned the win in relief, allowing just one hit and two unearned runs with two walks and six strikeouts in 3.0 innings of work. He is now 4-1. Junior Tom Gruber (Cape Elizabeth, ME/Cape Elizabeth) suffered the loss to fall to 4-4. He gave up three runs, all earned, on four hits with two strikeouts in 2.0 innings.
In the opener, RPI’s Zongol (Flower Mound, TX/Southington) improved to 8-1 and dropped his earned run average to 1.71 by giving up just six hits, an earned run and a walk with eight strikeouts in 7.0 innings. Skidmore junior Ed Reilly (Tenafly, NJ/Tenafly) gave up three earned runs on seven hits with six strikeouts in the loss. He is now 4-4.
The homestanding Red Hawks scored single runs in each of the first three innings before the Thoroughbreds got on the board in the sixth. Valentine, Muscatiello and Ken Carroll (Shelton, CT/Fairfield Prep) all had RBI hits for RPI, while Greg Carlow (Mystic, CT/Fitch) drove home Skidmore’s run with a bases loaded walk.
Valentine finished the doubleheader with six hits in eight at bats, including a double, with two runs and two RBI. Carroll was 5 for 7 with a double, two runs and an RBI. He is now hitting .495 for the season, collecting 46 hits in 93 at bats. For Skidmore, sophomore centerfielder Spencer Marcus (Scarsdale, NY/Scarsdale) was 3 for 6 with a double, two runs and an RBI.
Rensselaer is now 29-9 overall and 17-5 in the Liberty League while Skidmore is 19-16 and 11-11. The same teams play a doubleheader on Sunday in Saratoga Springs, N.Y., beginning at noon.
