ITHACA, N.Y. – The Ithaca College baseball team (21-8-1, 10-4 Empire 8) stayed atop the Empire 8 standings, sweeping Stevens (20-15, 5-8 Empire 8) 5-1 and 11-1 in Saturday's doubleheader. Freshman
Jimmy Wagner and senior
Tucker Healy combined on a four-hitter in game one and freshman Tim Prendergast threw a complete-game eight-hitter in the nightcap.
The Bombers raised their record to 21-8-1, reaching the 20-win plateau for the 32nd time in Coach
George Valesente's 34 years as head coach and the 35th time overall.
Wagner allowed four hits and two walks, striking out six in improving to 4-2 on the year.
Healy followed by retiring all five batters he faced – two by strikeout – to pick up his fourth save.
Sophomore third baseman
Colby Gee and senior right fielder Teagen Baresi both had two of Ithaca's seven hits.
Gee drove in a pair of runs;
Baresi and senior second baseman
Matt Keller both scored two runs.
The Bombers scored a pair of two-out runs in their first at-bat. Keller drew a four-pitch walk and moved to second on
Barresi's single.
Gee hit a fly ball down the right-field line that landed just fair to bring both runners home.
Wagner kept the Ducks off the scoreboard through 5.1 innings before Stevens used a pair of walks, a balk and an RBI single to put runners on first and second. Coming in with the go-ahead run on base,
Healy retired the Ducks on a ground out and strikeout.
Ithaca used three hits, two walks, three stolen bases and a throwing error to score three insurance runs in the sixth. Freshman
Vinnie Gneo followed an intentional walk to
Gee that loaded the bases with a run-scoring infield grounder, senior
Tim Henry – a pinch-runner – and
Barresi successfully executed a double steal from first and third and freshman outfielder
Christian Brown singled Henry in for the final run.
Healy's save was the 14th of his career; his total is two behind
Mike Saccomanno's 19-year-old school record.
In game two,
Prendergast threw his second complete-game of the year, raising his record to 7-0 and lowering his ERA to 3.06. He struck out five Ducks and allowed eight hits without walking a batter.
Prendergast is a victory away from tying Ithaca's freshman wins record set by
Dave Axenfeld in 1980.
Keller and senior center fielder
Mike Rosenbaum led Ithaca's 15-hit barrage with three hits apiece.
Keller doubled twice, giving him a team-best 15 on the season (three short of Ithaca's single-season record) and drove in three runs.
Rosenbaum scored three runs.
A sacrifice fly by
Keller and
Baresi's RBI single gave the Bombers a 2-0 first-inning lead for the second time in the doubleheader. Ithaca picked up four runs in both the fifth and seventh innings to put the game out of reach.
Senior first baseman
Mike Preite hit a two-run single in the fifth and Keller and sophomore catcher
Corey Caswell both hit run-scoring singles.
Caswell finished with two hits and highlighted Ithaca's defense by throwing out a Stevens runner on a stolen base attempt who had successfully stolen 33 consecutive bases this spring.
Keller hit a two-run double in the seventh;
Rosenbaum and left fielder
Andrew Turner contributed run-scoring singles.
The two teams conclude their series with a 1 p.m. game Sunday at Freeman Field.
Game one box score |
Game two box score
Game one box score |
Game two box score
