8-6 Baseball Win Over Oneonta Is Valesente's 900th Victory at Ithaca
ITHACA, N.Y. -- The baseball team (12-12) rallied for an 8-6 win over visiting Oneonta (20-12) Wednesday at Freeman Field, giving Coach
George Valesente the 900th win of his Bomber career.
Valesente, who took over at his alma mater in 1978, is now 900-351-7 at Ithaca. His overall coaching record, which also includes stints at Brockport, New Paltz and Maritime, is 987-448-7. He entered the season third in wins among active Division III coaches.
Ithaca's win was spearheaded by two-out hitting and strong relief pitching. The Bombers scored six of their last seven runs with two outs, including all three in their fifth-inning rally that put them ahead to stay. Senior Aaron Sapp (Niskayuna/Niskayuna) earned his team-best fourth win of the season, throwing three innings of three-hit relief. Junior Tucker Healy (Needham/Needham, Mass.) earned the save, striking out five of the seven batters he faced.
Junior second baseman Matt Keller (Pelham/Pelham) and junior left fielder Taegen Barresi (Lansing/Lansing), who both had three hits on the day, drove in the tying and go-ahead runs in the fifth. With Ithaca down 4-2, senior center fielder Rob Zappia (Greece Athena/Rochester) singled up the middle to score sophomore Ian Gaule (Columbai/East Greenbush) who'd led off with a double. Keller's double plated the tying run and Baresi's single to left field scored Keller from second.
Barresi collected a single, double (his team-leading ninth) and triple. Keller also drove in an insurance run in the eighth.
The Red Dragons, who lost their ninth straight at Freeman Field and fell to 8-46 all-time against the Bombers, nearly tied the game in the eighth but lost a run on a bizarre base-running mishap. With Ithaca up 7-4, Sapp hit the leadoff hitter; the next batter hit a ball over the left field fence that Barresi nearly caught. Oneonta's batter passed the runner already on base and was called out, with the runner scoring. The next three Red Dragons reached base, bringing home one run and putting the tying run on third and the go-ahead run on second. Healy came in and fanned the next two hitters to end the inning.
In the ninth, Healy struck out two more Red Dragons after giving off a lead-off single, then walked a batter to put the tying run on base before nailing down the win with this fifth strikeout of the day.
Senior first baseman Trevor Wolf (Lansing/Freeville) singled and doubled. He scored Ithaca's first run on an errant pickoff throw as the Bombers took a 2-0 lead in the second. Wolf followed Baresi's lead-off triple in the seventh with an RBI single.
Sapp (4-3) struck out four in his three-inning relief stint.
Ithaca's 14 hits marked the 14th time in 24 games the Bombers have reached double digits in base hits. The Bomber pitchers combined for 10 strikeouts -- one short of the team's single-game high this spring.
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