Auburn, N.Y. – The second-seeded Ithaca Bombers scored four first-inning runs and received their third straight stellar pitching performance as they beat fifth-seeded Trinity (Conn.) 8-1 in the NCAA NY Regional at Auburn. With the win Ithaca advances to the championship round of the regional, needing one win to advance to the Division III World Series for the first time since 1994. The Bantams will play in Friday’s final game, taking on the winner of the Cortland/St. John Fisher game; the loser of Friday’s final game will be eliminated and the winner will need to beat Ithaca twice Saturday to claim the regional title.
Junior
Shane Wolf (Lansing/Freeville) allowed just five hits and an unearned run in the complete game, striking out six and walking two.
Senior first baseman
Jason Friedman (Whitney Young/Chicago, Ill.) doubled in a pair of runs in Ithaca’s four-run outburst in the first. Junior shortstop
Josh Smith (Pulaski/Pulaski) and sophomore second baseman
Todd Czerno (Columbia/Brainard) added run-scoring singles.
Junior right fielder
Eric Ferguson (Columbia/East Greenbush) doubled twice and senior left fielder
Jeremy Peters (Thomas R. Proctor/Utica) recorded two hits and two runs scored to spark the Bomber offense.
Wolf did not allow a hit until the fourth, when sophomore catcher
Sean Killeen (Greenfield/Greenfield, Mass.) doubled with one out. An inning later the Bantams pushed across an unearned run. Senior designated hitter
Ben Silvanic (Westminster/Granby, Conn.) singled in junior left fielder
Matt Stafford (Plymouth North/Plymouth, Mass.), who had singled and advanced to third on an infield error.
Wolf worked out of trouble, picking up a strikeout and a soft line drive to get out of the inning to start a run of 11 outs in 11 batters (Trinity put a runner on in the eighth but Ithaca turned an inning-ending double play).
The Bantams loaded the bases in the bottom of the ninth. Junior center fielder
Chandler Barnard (Lubbock/Lubbock, Texas) led off with a double and one out later freshman first baseman
Kent Graham (Longmeadow/Longmeadow, Mass.) was hit by a pitch and freshman right fielder
James Wood (Bishop Guertin/Windham, N.H.) singled but
Wolf induced a game-ending double play.
The Bombers padded their lead with two runs in both the fifth and sixth. Junior catcher
Rob Raux (Ilion/Frankfort) tripled in
Smith in the fifth and later scored on a bases-loaded walk. In the sixth
Ferguson doubled in a run and scored on an infield error.
Silvanic finished with two of Trinity’s six hits.
The regional's remaining schedule:
Friday, May 18 Game 10: St. John Fisher vs. Cortland, 3:30 p.m.
Game 11: Game 10 Winner vs. Trinity (Conn.), 7 p.m.
Saturday, May 19Game 12: Ithaca vs. Game 11 Winner, noon
