SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y.—The Rensselaer Polytechnic (RPI) baseball team made use of the big inning in a 15-2, 10-5 Liberty League sweep of Skidmore College Saturday afternoon at Castle Diamond. The Thoroughbreds fall to 5-13 and 2-8 in league play, while the Engineers have won seven of their last nine to improve to 8-15 and 7-3.
In Game 1, RPI sent 15 batters to the plate in the first inning on the way to an 11-0 lead.
Christian Spagnuola had a pair of doubles and three RBI in the inning and
Sam Lawrence was 2 for 3 with a double and two RBI.
Skidmore got one back in the second on Steven Gilbert's RBI double.
Weston Hawkins had an RBI double in the fourth for the Engineers to make it 12-1.
The Thoroughbreds' second run came the fifth when Chris Lorenz singled and later scored on a fielders choice.
RPI added three in the sixth for the 15-2 final.
For Skidmore, Josh Brown was 3-3 with a run and Gilbert finished 2-3.
Sam Lawrence finished 4 for 5 with two doubles, three RBI and a run, while
Chris Holomakoff was 3 for 4 with two runs and Spagnuola was 2 for 6 with two doubles and four RBI.
Starter Andrew Aikins (3-2) took the loss.
Stephen Schiavone (3-2) got the win. He went six innings, allowing two runs on eight hits, no walks, and five strikeouts.
In Game 2, Skidmore took a 2-0 lead with a pair of unearned runs in the fourth. Hayden Smith reached on an error, moved to second on a Brown single and then scored on a throwing error on a sacrifice bunt. Brown later scored on a Mike Fogarty sac fly.
RPI finally solved Thoroughbred freshman Spencer Anderson in the sixth. Anderson hadn't allowed a hit while facing the minimum 16 batters, before JT Sawyer singled with one out and later scored on a two-out double by Hawkins. Anderson got an infield out to end the threat.
The Engineers took a 5-2 lead with four runs in the seventh, keyed by a two-run Eric Meister double and a two-out pinch hit RBI double by
Justin Valente.
Skidmore cut it to 5-3 when Shankar Mani scored on Mike LaVita's infield hit in the seventh.
RPI put it out of reach with five unearned runs in the eighth. The big blow coming on
Yahriel Jimenez's towering grand slam to right field.
Smith blasted a two-run home run in the ninth for the final two Thoroughbred runs.
Jimenez was 2 for 4 with two runs and five RBI.
Greg Echeverria (2-4) went six innings for the win. He allowed two unearned runs on six hits with one walk and five strikeouts.
Charles Parslow earned his first save of the season with three innings of relief. He gave up three runs on four hits to go along with one walk and four strikeouts.
Smith was 2-5 with two runs and two RBI. Brown finished 2-5 with a run and Mike LaVita was 2 for 4 with an RBI. Anderson (0-3) had the hard-luck loss, going 6.2 innings, allowing five runs on seven hits with no walk and four strikeouts.
Both teams are back in action tomorrow at Robison Field (12pm).
