Canton, N.Y. – The Ithaca College baseball team (23-8-1) rallied from deficits in the seventh and ninth innings to beat host St. Lawrence (23-10) 10-9 Wednesday in non-conference play. The win was the Bombers' 25th straight over the Saints, dating back to 1996, and raised their all-time record against St. Lawrence to 79-16-1.
The Bombers scored a pair of unearned runs in the ninth on a two-out single by sophomore third baseman
Colby Gee and senior closer
Tucker Healy struck out all four batters he faced.
The Saints had rallied to erase two different Bomber leads – they plated six fifth-inning runs to go up 7-6 then answered Ithaca's two-run outburst in the top of the seventh with two runs of their own in the bottom of the inning.
Gee's ninth-inning hit was his third of the game. It scored senior second baseman
Matt Keller and senior center fielder
Mike Rosenbaum;
Rosenbaum had drawn a one-out walk and
Keller followed by reaching on an infield grounder – the Saints retired the lead runner at third on the play but threw the ball away putting
Rosenbaum and
Keller at third and second, respectively. Senior right fielder
Teagen Barresi drew a walk to load the bases, setting the stage for Gee's big hit.
Keller and
Rosenbaum both drove in runs in Ithaca's two-run seventh. Junior left fielder
Andrew Turner – who matched a career high with three hits – singled to lead off the inning and scored the tying run on
Rosenbaum's double.
Keller, who leads the nation in doubles, followed with his school-record 19th two-base hit of the season to put the Bombers ahead.
Ithaca sent 11 batters to the plate in the third inning, scoring five runs.
Keller singled in sophomore shortstop
Tim Locastro, who'd reached on a lead-off double.
Barresi and
Gee reached on infield singles and senior first baseman
Mike Preite walked to load the bases. An infield error brought in a run and a
Turner single and throwing error by the Saints' catcher allowed two more runners to score. Sophomore catcher
Corey Caswell walked to reload the bases and
Locastro drew a walk to force in the final run of the inning.
Rosenbaum scored three runs and Keller and Gee both had two runs batted in. Ithaca pounded out 17 hits and matched a season high with six stolen bases.
Healy improved to 2-3 on the season. He came in with two outs in the eighth, a runner on third and St. Lawrence's clean-up hitter at the plate.
Healy struck out all four hitters he faced (they'd combined to go eight-for-16 with three home runs and eight runs batted in to that point), giving him 44 strikeouts in 29 innings this spring.
The Bombers wrap up Empire 8 play this weekend, hosting Utica in a three-game weekend series.
Box score
