ITHACA, N.Y. – The Ithaca College baseball team utilized 13 strikeouts from Kyle Lambert and Garrett Bell, along with 10 hits from the offense, to take down No. 22 Rochester, 5-2, on Saturday afternoon at Freeman Field in a Liberty League showdown. The Bombers are now 21-8 on the season and 9-3 in the Liberty League, while Rochester suffers its first league loss of the year and is now 24-6 overall and 11-1.

Lambert tossed 8.0 innings and struck out 10 Yellowjackets to just two walks, while scattering five hits with two earned runs. Garrett Bell completed the masterpiece turned in by Lambert by mowing down Rochester in the ninth inning with three strikeouts for his second save of the year.

Rochester got on the board in the top of the first inning as Aaron Whitley led off with a solo home run to left field. From there, Lambert settled in and struck out the next two batters and induced a fly out to retire the side.

In the bottom of the first, Ithaca tied the game at 1-1 as Buzz Shirley drilled an opposite field homer to left field with two outs.

Rochester went back ahead in the third with a sacrifice fly after a double down the right field line from Whitley put two runners in scoring position.

The Bombers knotted the contest at 2-2 as Gil Merod was hit by a pitch with the bases loaded, which allowed Louis Fabbo to score from third base. Fabbo led off the inning with a base hit up the middle and then moved around the bases on a single by Connor Pedersen and a passed ball. Matt Fabian would walk later in the inning to load the bases for Merod, but the Bombers left the bases loaded with a strikeout.

The Yellowjackets threatened to regain the lead in the fifth as a lead-off single moved into scoring position on a sac bunt, but the Bombers elected to intentionally walk the next batter and induced a 4-6-3 double play to get out of the inning.

IC took a 3-2 lead in the bottom half of the fifth as Riley Brawdy, who led off with a ground-rule double to right-center, scored on a wild pitch. Later in the inning, Shirley scored on another wild pitch to extend IC's lead to 4-2.

The Bombers tacked on another run in the bottom of the eighth as Collin Feeney drove home Merod with a double to the left-center gap to make the score 5-2, which was the eventual final.

Pedersen and Brawdy each collected two hits for IC, while six other Bombers produced a hit.

IC and UR will play a doubleheader tomorrow in Rochester beginning at 1 p.m.