Box Score

ROCHESTER, N.Y. - Junior centerfielder Sean Wilkes collected three hits and classmate Andrew Novick pitched 3.2 innings of solid relief to lead the No. 20 Rensselaer baseball team to a 5-3 victory over Rochester in the Liberty League Tournament.

RPI, the second seed, improves to 32-10 and advances to Sunday's action, when the Red Hawks have a chance to win the event and secure an automatic berth into the NCAA Tournament.  Rensselaer needs to win one game on Sunday to win the league title.  Rochester, the top seed, is now 28-12 and plays an elimination game on Saturday at 2:30pm against either third-seeded St. Lawrence or fourth-seeded Clarkson.  The Saints, who lost to RPI, 6-1, in the opener, and Golden Knights, who fell to the homestanding Yellowjackets, 3-0, earlier on Friday, meet at 11am on Saturday.

After two scoreless innings, RPI opened a 3-0 lead with three runs in the top of the third inning, highlighted by a two-out triple by senior Dan Valentine (Goshen, NY/Avon Old Farms).  Rochester came back to put its first two runners on base in their half of the inning but Red Hawks starter Tim Klein (Westwood, NJ/St. Joseph Regional) worked out of the trouble.

Klein worked out of a bases loaded jam in the fifth inning before the Yellowjackets got to within a run, 3-2, on a two-run single down the rightfield line by Matt Francis (East Amherst, NY/Clarence) in the sixth.  Novick (Hopewell Junction, NY/John Jay), a righthander, came on in relief of Andrew Mondo (Clifton Park, NY/Shenendehowa) in that inning and got the final two outs. 

Rensselaer responded right away, putting two more runs on the scoreboard thanks to a two-run double by Wilkes (Troy, NY/Catholic Central) in the top of the seventh inning.  Rochester got one of those runs back in the bottom of the seventh but Novick held them scoreless from that point.

Novick allowed two runs on two hits and two walks with three strikeouts in picking up his second save of the season.  Klein improved to 5-2 by allowing just two runs in 5.1 innings.

Wilkes, who went 3 for 5 in RPI's first game of the day, had two singles, a double and two runs batted in.  Jim Devine (Castleton, NY/Columbia) added two hits, a run scored and an RBI, Valentine knocked in two runs and senior Matt Muscatiello (Kinderhook, NY/Ichabod Crane) scored twice.

For Rochester, Francis was 3 for 4 with two RBI, while Michael Park (Scarsdale, NY/Scarsdale) pitched 6.1 innings in suffering the loss.