TROY, N.Y. – The Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute (RPI) baseball team saw their season come to a close on Sunday afternoon, as the fell to the Ithaca Bombers by a 13-5 final score at Karl Steffen Park at Robison Field in the third game of the Liberty League Crossover Weekend. The Bombers – who won two of the three games in the series – improve their record to 25-14 with a 12-6 mark in the Liberty League, while RPI finishes their season with a 25-15-1 mark with an 11-6 record in conference play.
Ithaca opened the scoring in the top of the second inning, putting up a pair on an error and sacrifice fly to give the Bombers a 2-0 lead.
The Engineers broke through on offense in the bottom of the fourth and bottom of the fifth inning, scoring a combined five runs between the two frames. In the fourth after RPI loaded the bases,
Joey Saia delivered a sacrifice fly to center field to score a run before
Julian Scarpa took home on a caught stealing in the next at-bat to tie the game at 2-2.
In the bottom of the fifth,
Martin Marintchev and Scarpa had back-to-back RBI singles to put the Engineers on top 4-2 before a passed ball added a fifth run to give the Engineers a three-run lead heading into the top of the sixth.
From the sixth inning on, it was all Ithaca on the scoreboard. Louis Fabbo collected an RBI single in the top of the sixth to tie the game up at 5-5, scoring both Ethan Rothstein and Matt Fabien.
The Bombers took the lead for good in the top of the seventh inning, scoring another pair of runs as a pair of singles and a hit by pitch loaded the bases. With two out, one of the singles fell in the infield to allow the inning to continue before a balk and single up the middle by Rothstein brought home the runs as Ithaca took a 7-5 lead.
Ithaca extended the lead in a big way in the top of the eighth inning, scoring six runs to bring their lead to 13-5 as four of the six runs scored via a bases loaded walk or hit by pitch. The Bombers kept the RPI offense at bay in the eighth and ninth innings to seal the deal and advance to the Liberty League playoffs.
Fabbo ended the day for Ithaca with a 3-for-4 afternoon with five RBI and a run scored. Fabien and Rothstein also added two hits apiece, with Rothstein adding a trio of RBI's. As a team, the Bombers drew 10 walks with three hit batters.
Scarpa led the RPI offense with a three-hit day, with Marintchev and Moncur also adding a pair of hits as well. Marintchev also scored two runs, while Scarpa added a double.
