1,000 Wins For Valesente As Bombers Rally For 9-5 Baseball Win Over Pomona-Pitzer
Claremont, Calif. -- The Ithaca College baseball team (6-2) improved to 4-1 on its spring trip, beating Pomona-Pitzer 9-5 Friday. The win was the 1,000th in the career of long-time Bomber coach George Valesente.
Junior Pat Lemmo improved to 3-0 with a complete-game win and Ithaca rallied from a 3-0 first-inning hole. The Bombers took the lead for good in the fourth and plated five insurance runs over the eighth and ninth innings.
Sophomore left fielder Luke Stark drove in the winning run in the top of the fourth and singled in a run to highlight Ithaca's four-run ninth.
Senior second baseman Matt Keller singled twice, driving in a run in the eighth and bringing in two in the ninth.
Lemmo struck out three Sagehens and held Pomona-Pitzer scoreless on three hits between the three-run first and the two-run ninth.
Junior Ian Gaule singled twice. He drove in Ithaca's first run in top of the second, scoring freshman right fielder Max Addy, who had led off with a single and stolen second.
Junior catcher Kevin Primm and senior shortstop Jarrod Surine opened the third by reachin on a single and an infield error. Primm scored on a sacrifice fly by freshman center fielder Christian Brown and Surine scored the tying run on a wild pitch.
The Bombers took their first lead in the fourth, going up 4-3. Junior first baseman Rocco DeBlasiis reached on a one-out single, went to second on a passed ball and took third on Gaule's single before coming home on Stark's run-scoring groundout.
Sophomore shortstop Tim Locastro, who entered the game in the bottom of the seventh, was hit by a pitch in both the eighth and ninth and came around to score both times.
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