Utica, N.Y. -- The baseball team (14-8, 5-1 Empire 8) defeated Utica (4-9, 0-4 Empire 8) in a doubleheader Saturday, 12-6 and 29-1. The second game's margin of victory of 28 runs is the most in the Coach George Valesente Era. In 25 years the Bombers have only scored 29 or more runs three times in a single game. The most recent was in 2005 against Cazenovia when Ithaca crossed home plate a school-record 37 times. In 1983, the Bombers scored 30 runs against Binghamton and 29 against Colgate.
Three Bombers had multi-hit games in game one. Junior catcher Rob Raux (Ilion/Frankfort) led the team by going 2-for-3. Both senior leftfielder Jeremy Peters (Thomas R. Proctor/Utica) and junior first baseman Eric Ferguson (Columbia/East Greenbush) went 2-for-4. Raux and Peters each scored a team-high three runs, while Ferguson drove in a season-best four RBIs. Raux, along with junior second baseman Todd Czerno (Columbia/Brainard), drove in two runs apiece.
Ithaca collected all of their runs in the first three innings. They hammered Utica's pitching for five hits and four runs in the first, three hits and five runs in the second and two hits and three runs in the third. Raux hit his team-high fifth and sixth double of the season, in the first and third innings. Each time he drove in a run.
Junior designated hitter Shane Wolf (Lansing/Freeville) hit his first triple of the season in the first inning. Ferguson, who hit a double in the first, hit a three-run blast in the third inning. The homer is his first of the season and fifth of his career.
Junior Nick Sottung (Pulaski/Pulaski) improved to 5-2 by whiffing seven batters in six innings. Senior Matt Lavoie (Moses Brown/Providence, R.I.) entered the game in the seventh and struck out the final two batters.
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Dylan Perez tied a school record by recording six hits in game two." src="/images/baseball/2007/2/21/Perez.jpg" width=140 align=right border=0>In game two the Bombers scored runs in all but one inning (the sixth) and scored a season-high 14 runs in the seventh inning. The team flirted with the record books by registering 31 hits -- two shy of the 33 hits against Cazenovia in 2005. Freshman third baseman Dylan Perez (ConVal Regional [Conn.]/Peterborough, N.H.) tied a school record with six hits. Only two other Bombers have registered six hits in a game: Mike Valent in 1987 and Rich Miller in 1967. Along with going 6-for-6, Perez (pictured to the right) had a team-high seven RBIs and five runs scored.
Thirteen Bombers recorded RBIs, ten of which batted .500 or above. Ferguson continued to have success by going 3-for-5 with four RBIs and three runs scored. Senior right fielder Eric Maya (Rome Free Academy/Rome) went 4-for-6 with three RBIs and three runs. Four Bombers crossed home plate three or more times and ten Bombers crossed two or more times.
In the top of the seventh the Bombers had 18 at bats, breaking the school's previous record of 14. Ithaca had 15 hits and scored 14 runs. Maya doubled twice in the inning and Peters added one.
Junior #Shane Wolf# (Lansing/Freeville) pitched a complete game to improve to 2-0. He struck out a season-high nine batters.
Utica will host Ithaca again Sunday for a doubleheader at noon.
Game 1 - Box Score, Game 2 - Box Score
