TROY, N.Y. - After
Ben Koomey shut down the opposition, allowing the Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute (RPI) baseball team to eke out a 1-0 victory despite having only three hits, the Engineers had 15 hits on its way to scoring a 10-8 come-from-behind victory over Bard College and sweeping the Raptors on the day - and in the three-game series. Rensselaer, which won 14-5 on Friday on the road, is now 22-11-1 overall and 9-4 in the Liberty League. Bard drops to 7-17 and 5-11.
In Saturday's opener, a seven inning game, Koomey and Aidan Risse matched zeros while allowing only five hits combined through the first six innings. In RPI's half of the seventh,
Joey Saia walked with one out and
Cole Paquin followed with a pinch hit single to put runners on the corners. A walk from pinch hitter
Ryan Brewer loaded the bases and freshman catcher
Robbie Reddington ended the game with a fly ball single to right field that plated Saia.
Koomey, a junior, allowed only four hits with no walks and seven strikeouts to improve to 5-1. Risse dropped to 4-2 after giving up three hits and five walks with seven Ks.
The second game saw the Engineers come back from an 8-1 fourth inning deficit behind two hits apiece from each of the top five batters in their lineup, including a pair of home runs from Brewer.
Alex Vallee pitched 3.2 innings of relief, allowing two hits with two strikeouts, to earn the win. Kane Morgan, a reliever, suffered the loss.
Trailing 1-0 after the first inning, the visiting Raptors struck for two runs in the second and then put up five in the third for a 7-1 lead. Highlighting the big frame was a two-out, two-RBI single up the middle from Mike Lynch, followed by a hit to left from Sam Dumper that scored Jack Williamson. Risse, who played first base in the second game, singled home Jake Stacey in the fourth for the 8-1 margin.
RPI answered the run Risse knocked in with six in their half of the frame. Brewer, the fifth place hitter, started things with a home run to left field before
Aidan Hicks, RPI's leadoff batter, eventually doubled home a pair to make it an 8-4 score. Two batters later,
Martin Marintchev drove a ball over the fence in left field to pull the Engineers to within 8-7.
The score remained that way until the sixth when Brewer hit his second dinger of the game, and third of the season, to left with Marintchev on base. A Hicks groundout to second base in the seventh concluded the scoring and Vallee finished the game without surrendering a run.
Hicks added two runs and three RBI, Marintchev had two runs and three knocked in, and Brewer scored twice with three RBI.
George Rainer also had two hits with two runs scored.
For Bard, Stacey was 4 for 5 with three runs and Dumper had three hits and one run batted in. Aidan Rose added two hits, two runs and two RBI and Lynch was 2 for 5 with a run and two RBI.
