Two-Out Offense Lifts Bombers To Win Over No. 1 Linfield
APPLETON, Wis. -- The Ithaca College baseball team used a pair of two-out rallies and defeated No. 1-ranked Linfield 6-4 on Monday afternoon at Fox Cities Stadium. Just three teams remain alive at the NCAA Division III Baseball World Series and the champion will be crowned Tuesday evening following a pair of games. Seventh-ranked Ithaca advances to face 14th-ranked Southern Maine in a game that begins at noon ET. The winner of that game faces Linfield at 3:30 p.m. ET in the national championship game.
After Linfield scored twice in the bottom of the first, Bomber first baseman Matt Connolly got Ithaca started with a home run to left field. The fly-ball homer was pushed toward the foul pole by strong winds that blew throughout the game, but the ball struck the pole and resulted in Connolly's first career home run.
"It was an inside pitch, I just got my hands in and got the bat around the ball. It was up in the air for a while, the wind was blowing in and it was pushing it foul. I was just hoping it would stay fair and it nicked the pole for a home run," Connolly said.
Ithaca had its big offensive inning in the top of the fifth, when three runs crossed with two outs. A Christian Brown single and Tim Locastro walk set up a two-out opportunity for Colby Gee, who singled up the middle to bring in Brown. Corey Caswell ripped a double into the left-field corner to bring in Locastro with the tying run, and then Gee scored on a flared single to right by Vinny Gneo.
The Bombers added a single run in the sixth on a two-out single by Locastro to bring in Luke Stark, but Linfield answered with an unearned run in the bottom of the sixth to stay within one run of Ithaca.
Ithaca escaped with the lead after an eventful eighth inning for Linfield, as the Wildcats had a runner at third with one out and a deflected grounder got loose on the right side of the Bomber infield. Tim Henry picked it up and made a tag play at first on the batter, and the runner didn't score. The inning ended with a fly out to left field.
The Bombers added an insurance run in the top of the ninth on an RBI groundout by Gee.
In Ithaca's last three games, eight of the team's 14 runs have come on two-out hits. Three others came via solo home runs.
Brown and Locastro had two hits each at the top of the Bomber lineup. Brown scored once and Locastro scored twice.
"Batting at the top of the lineup with Locastro has just been a pleasure," Brown said. "I can get on and I know that he is going to hit me around."
Caswell also had two hits in the game. Gee, Gneo, Connolly and Stark all had one hit each.
Starting pitcher Pat Lemmo pitched effectively on two days of rest. He allowed four runs, but just one was earned, over seven innings. He yielded nine hits, walked two batters, and struck out one. Lemmo picked up the victory, his 12th of the season, which ties the single-season pitching wins record for Ithaca. Tom O'Connor (2004) and Chris Rauth (1985) also have won 12 games in a season.
"It was a really big win for us. Obviously we can't lose at this point. It feels great to be moving on," Lemmo said. "We have a lot of momentum going right now."
Jimmy Wagner pitched the final two innings to record the save, his seventh of the season and third of the World Series tournament. He allowed just one runner to reach base when he hit a batter in the eighth inning. He had one strikeout in the ninth that ended the game.
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