Bombers Stun St. John Fisher To Sweep Cardinals Out Of First Place
ITHACA, N.Y. -- The Ithaca College baseball team (15-4-1, 5-1 Empire 8) completed its three-game weekend sweep of St. John Fisher (15-7, 2-3 Empire 8), beating the Cardinals 8-3 in the opener of Saturday's doubleheader then rallying from a 9-2 eighth-inning deficit to shock St. John Fisher 10-9 on a walk-off hit by senior center fielder Mike Rosenbaum. The #23 Bombers take a 2.5-game lead in the Empire 8 standings and will travel to #6 Cortland for a Wednesday game.
Game two featured a dramatic rally as the Bombers -- who trailed 9-2 heading into the bottom of the eighth -- exploded for five runs in the eighth and three more in the bottom of the ninth. Ithaca hammered the Cardinals for nine hits over the final two innings and five other Bombers reached base on walks or being hit by a pitch.
Rosenbaum capped Ithaca’s eight-run rally with his second hit of the day, a bases-loaded single through the left side that scored freshman Christian Brown with the winning run.
Senior right fielder Teagen Barresi, who played two years at St. John Fisher before transferring to Ithaca last year, opened the ninth by drawing a walk. Sophomore third baseman Colby Gee followed with a double that landed just inside the right field foul line and senior first baseman Mike Preite brought
Barresi home with a ground out to pull the Bombers to 9-8. One out later,
Andrew Turner was hit by a pitch to put the winning run on base (Cardinal pitchers hit 13 Ithaca batters during the three-game series with a school-record nine Bombers hit by pitches in Friday’s romp). Catcher Kevin Primm, batting for the first time in the game after entering in the eighth, tied the score with a flare to right field that scored pinch-runner Luke Stark. Brown, who pinch-ran for Turner, moved to second on Primm’s hit and advanced to third when sophomore shortstop Tim Locastro drew a full count walk to load the bases. Rosenbaum the count 1-2, then worked the count to 2-2 and fouled off two pitches before capping Ithaca’s sweep with his game-winning hit.
Rosenbaum’s three runs batted in led the Bombers; Each of the first five hitters in the Ithaca line-up – Locastro, Rosenbaum, senior second baseman Matt Keller Barresi and Gee – finished with two hits.
Quinn Irwin earned the win, the first of his career, by pitching a perfect ninth inning
In the opener, the Bombers got strong pitching performances from freshman starter Jimmy Wagner and Ian Gaule, who earned his first career save by retiring the Cardinals’ final seven bates.
Ithaca’s pitching staff held St. John Fisher to a .268 average, 14 runs and five extra-base hits. The Cardinals came into the weekend leading Division III in scoring, batting average, slugging percentage
Keller had a pair of doubles among his caeeer-best four hits. He scored two runs and drove in three others.
Locastro and Turner both had two hits.
Wagner was the game one winner, going 4.1 innings,
Game one box score |
Game two box score
Game one box score |
Game two box score