CLEVELAND, Ohio – The Ithaca College baseball team saw its season come to a close on Saturday as the Bombers dropped a 10-4 decision to Alvernia University in an elimination game at the Cleveland Regional hosted by Case Western Reserve University. Ithaca finishes the year with a 31-11 record.
Ithaca went down in order on just six pitches in the top of the first inning and then Alvernia plated two runs as a walk and hit batter scored on a two-out double to right-center to take a 2-0 lead.
The Golden Wolves loaded the bases with two outs in the second inning and brought in another run on a walk for a 3-0 lead. Alvernia's next batter ripped a single to left and one run scored, while the second runner was thrown out at home by
Louis Fabbo, but the out was overturned on obstruction at third base to make it 5-0.
Ithaca finally got something going in the top of the fourth inning as Fabbo and
Camden Laney reached on back-to-back one-out singles.
Ethan McDonough followed with a double down the left field line to make it 5-1 and then
Ryan Laubscher drove in Laney with a groundout to bring the Bombers to within three runs at 5-2.
Alvernia got those two runs back in the bottom half of the fourth as a lead-off walk moved up on a stolen bases and scored on an error. That error would then score on a base hit for a 7-2 difference. The Golden Wolves' lead grew to 8-2 on another base hit to centerfield with two outs.
The Bombers scored one more run in the fifth inning as
Collin Feeney drove home
Riley Brawdy with a sacrifice fly to right for a five-run spread at 8-3.
Alvernia put the game away in the sixth inning by putting two more runs on the board to make it 10-3.
IC scored once in the ninth inning on an RBI double by Fabbo that brought in Feeney for the 10-4 final score.
Fabbo finished the day 2-for-3 and went 4-for-7 in the regional.
Jack Picozzi took the loss as he allowed five runs on three hits with three walks and two hit batters over 2.0 innings pitched.
John Griffin and
Sean Kelly each threw two innings of relief, while
Dan Kellachan and
Conor Burns both tossed one inning.