TROY, N.Y. – The Ithaca College baseball team and RPI will play a winner-take-all game on Sunday afternoon after the Bombers and Engineers split a doubleheader on Friday afternoon to open the Liberty League Crossover Series. Ithaca comfortably won the opener, 14-0, while RPI came back to force a game three with a 5-4 win in the nightcap.
GAME ONE: Ithaca 14, RPI 0
The Bombers opened the game with four runs in the top of the first inning and never looked back.
Garrett Callaghan plated three runs with a home run to right field and then
Riley Brawdy stroked an RBI double to plate
Matt Curtis.
IC's lead grew to 7-0 in the fifth inning as Callaghan blasted a two-run shot with
Louis Fabbo on base and
Gil Merod brought home the third run on a bases loaded walk as Curtis scored once again.
In the seventh inning, the Bombers pushed home five more runs to make it a 12-0 blowout and plated two more in the eighth for the 14-0 final.
Colin Shashaty scored the first run of the seventh on a wild pitch and then
Collin Feeney cranked a grand slam. Brawdy belted IC's fourth homer of the contest in the eighth with Shashaty on base.
Kyle Lambert earned the win with 7.0 scoreless innings pitched with eight strikeouts to just four hits and two walks.
Erislandy Rives fired the final 2.0 innings of relief.
GAME TWO: RPI 5, Ithaca 4
Ithaca looked destined to complete the sweep on Saturday as the Bombers jumped out to a 3-0 after three innings of play, but the Engineers scored four runs in the fifth and one more in the sixth to come away with the 5-4 victory.
In the second inning, Brawdy drove home Shashaty with a base hit and
Ethan Rothstein followed with an RBI single to plate
Matt Fabian. Fabbo extended the lead in the third as he scored on an error.
The Engineers scored their first run on a single up the middle and then cleared the bases with a three-run double to center to take a 4-3 lead.
IC knotted the game at 4-4 in the top of the sixth on an RBI double from Fabbo that brought in Merod, but RPI regained the lead with the eventual game-winning run in the bottom of the sixth on a base hit to right.
Colin Leyner took the loss in a complete game as he allowed five earned runs on eight hits and struck out three.
First pitch of Sunday's game will begin at 12 p.m.
