Box Score
Box Score

TROY, N.Y – Junior right fielder Brady Torbitt (Fulton, NY/Mexico) went 2 for 5 with a double, a home run and three runs batted in to lead the Clarkson University baseball team to a 13-6 victory over 15th-ranked Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute (RPI) in the Liberty League Championship game, Sunday afternoon at Robison Field.

Selections for the 2009 NCAA Tournament will be announced on Monday morning. For the first time in program history, the Golden Knights earned the Liberty League's automatic bid and are now 21-19 on the season. Rensselaer, which is ranked second in the New York Region, is now 34-11 and is anticipating a bid into this year's tournament.

Torbitt, who took home the tournament's Most Outstanding Player honors, batted .444 (8 for 18) for the Golden Knights (21-19). He added six runs scored and six RBI as Clarkson posted a 3-1 record in this year's championship.

Locked in a 6-6 tie after six innings, Golden Knights' rookie David Kinney (Mexico, NY/Mexico) pushed the visitors ahead in the top of the seventh with Clarkson's third home run of the game, a two-run shot to right field.

The visitors took an 8-6 lead to the ninth. In the inning, Torbitt doubled to centerfield and advanced to third on a sacrifice bunt by Kinney. Junior Brett Peplowski (Albany, NY/Colonie) followed with a single through the left side to score the runner and give the Knights a 9-6 lead. Junior Steve Magovney (Watertown, NY/Immaculate Heart) followed with a run-scoring single deep to left center field, making it a 10-6 advantage and the Golden Knights tacked on three more runs to close out the scoring.

Clarkson got things going early in the first inning as senior Matt Giordano (Liverpool, NY/Liverpool) blasted a home run to right center field. Red Hawks threatened in the bottom half of the inning, but could not answer until the second inning when junior Scott Robinson (Schenectady, NY/Mohonasen) sent a two-run shot to deep right field for a 2-1 lead.

The Golden Knights rebounded in the top half of the third after a single and a hit batsmen put runners on first and second for senior Cale Giroux (Cortland, NY/Groton), who lined the ball into right field to tie the game at 2-2. Junior Matt Curry (Richland, NY/Pulaski) followed with a run-scoring double and Torbitt grounded out to second, scoring another run, to give the visitors at 4-2 lead.

Rensselaer cut the deficit in its half of the inning as junior left fielder Camden Mamigonian (Dover, NH/Dover) sent a long shot to the centerfield wall, driving in Patrick Reardon (Troy, NY/LaSalle Institute), for a 4-3 score.

After a quiet fourth inning, Torbitt added to the Clarkson advantage, pushing the score to 6-3 with a two-run homer over the right field wall. But it was Mamigonian in the bottom half of the fifth, who tied the game with a three-run home run for a 6-6 ballgame through five complete.

Reardon led the Red Hawks effort in the loss, going 5 for 5 with two runs scored. The junior catcher hit a tournament-best .555, going 11 for 20 with five runs scored, eight runs batted in and three doubles.

In addition to Torbitt and Giordano, fellow Golden Knights Austin Pitkin (Dexter, NY/General Brown) and Jerry Coleman (Potsdam, NY/Potsdam) were named to the nine-player All-Tournament Team. Sophomores Josh Brooks (Mechanicville, NY/Mechanicville) and Mike Cieszko (Stevenson Ranch, CA/William S. Hart) along with Reardon and Mamigonian were chosen from Rensselaer, while Skidmore's Mike Jaffe (Wynnewood, PA/Lower Merion) rounded out this year's team.