ITHACA, N.Y. – The Ithaca College baseball team punched another ticket to the Liberty League Tournament as the Bombers defeated Vassar College, 10-9, in 10 innings on a walk-off home run by
Ethan Daddabbo in the opening game of the Crossover Series and returned to Freeman Field on Saturday to complete a suspended game, which finished by a 9-1 final. Ithaca, which is now 24-13, will be the No. 1 seed in the Liberty League Tournament
Game One: Ithaca 10, Vassar 9 (10 Innings)
The hitting for Ithaca was started off by
Camden Laney with a one-out RBI double in the bottom of the first. Followed by
Collin Feeney hitting Laney home with a two-out single. The Bombers led 2-0 at the end of the first.
The top of the second for Vassar started off by a first out catcher's interference on what would have been strike three sent Luke Barrientos to first. Ricardo Reyna then had an RBI single to bring home Vassar's first run of the game. A hit by pitch with two outs loaded the bases and then a walk pushed in the second run of the inning. Jensen Bergman then hit a two-RBI single to give Vassar the 4-2 lead.
Vassar pitcher Will Darrell closed out the second with a two-out bases loaded strikeout, preventing the Bombers from cutting into the 4-2 score.
Ryan Laubscher got the Bomber bats restarted in the bottom of the fourth with a lead-off double down the third base line. Five pitches later,
Riley Brawdy sent Laubscher home with a two-run homer that easily flew over the right field fence to tie the game at 4-4.
Ethan McDonough then scored on a passed ball and a blooper down the first base line stayed fair and dropped between three Brewers defenders, leading to a two-RBI single for Connor Pederson to extend IC's lead to 7-4.
Vassar got back to within a run, 7-6, by scoring on a wild pitch in the sixth, followed by a two-out single in the seventh. The Bombers went back up by three in the eighth with a two-out bases loaded walk by Daddabbo and an RBI infield single from Laubscher.
Vassar started to close the gap in the ninth with an RBI single from Luke Barrientos over the head of first baseman
Ethan Fantel. After an Ithaca pitching change with the bases loaded, a wild pitch allowed Taison Jemison to get home and hit by pitch tied the game 9-9 with no outs.
Dan Kellachan then got the Bombers out of the no-out, bases loaded jam with a double play and pop out to keep the game tied.
A hit by pitch and a stolen base in the bottom of the ninth got
Ethan McDonough to second with one out. Ithaca loaded the bases with a back-to-back walks, but the game went to extras as the next to IC hitters struck out.
Vassar threatened once again in the 10th, as Jensen Bergman hit a line drive to the wall in center field and later moved up to third, but Ithaca struck out the next batter and a fly out kept the score at 9-9.
Daddabbo ended the game in dramatic fashion with as he blasted a walk-off home run to lead off the inning.
Game Two: Ithaca 9, Vassar 1
Freshman
Ethan Murley worked around a lead-off hit batter to pitch a scoreless top of the first.
Andrew McDermott hit a lead-off homerun on the first pitch he saw in the bottom half of the inning to put the Bombers on top. Vassar starter Zach Berner got into some two-out trouble with a hit batter and walk but was able to get out of the inning without any further damage.
After an hour-long lightning delay in the second inning, Ithaca stranded two runners in scoring position when McDonough lined out sharply to center field.
Murley got Barrientos to strike out with runners on second and third in the top of the third inning, to keep the Brewers scoreless. In the bottom half, Daddabbo singled to left field off the glove of shortstop Birch Herring-Jackson, driving in a run to make it 2-0 Bombers.
Barrientos singled with two outs to score a runner from second base, to finally put Vassar on the board in the top of the fifth inning. Daddabbo drove in his second run of the game with another single in the bottom half of the inning to make it 3-1 before the game was halted heading to the top of the sixth.
Colin Leyner entered in relief in the top of the sixth inning once played resumed on Saturday and struck out the side on just 13 pitches. Leyner put together one of his best performances of the season as he struck out seven batters and allowed just one hit in 4.0 innings of relief to pick up the save.
Ithaca tacked on a run in the bottom of the eighth as three straight hits led to
Connor Pedersen scoring on a double down the left field line by
Andrew McDermott to make it 4-1. Two more runs scored on a throwing error to the plate with
Ryan Laubscher and
Riley Brawdy scoring to extend the lead to 6-1 with no outs.
Ethan Fantel then drove in another run on a sacrifice fly and
Ethan Daddabbo followed with a two-run double to right-center for a 9-1 score.
