Elmira Drops Two; Stevens Falls at Home
ELMIRA v Bard
Mother Nature was finally cooperative as the Elmira College baseball team was able to continue their inaugural season with a pair of games at Bard College this afternoon. The Soaring Eagles and Raptors engaged in a high-scoring shootout in game one of today's non-conference doubleheader, with EC coming out on the losing end of a 17-10 game, but Elmira's bats went silent in a 6-0 loss in the nightcap.
Game One: Bard 17, Elmira 10
EC got off to a fast start in the first game of the doubleheader, plating three runs in the top half of the first inning.
Hayden Rothenberg'18 was hit by a pitch to open the game, then proceeded to steal second base before coming around to score on a Michael Burghardt'18 sacrifice fly.
Rey Colon'18 and
Dylan Bellinger'18 would add to EC's tally, scoring on a
Harrison Leslie'18 two-RBI double.
Elmira's lead would not last long as Bard would push across five runs in the bottom half of the first inning and add a sixth run in the bottom of the second inning to take a 6-3 lead. EC made it a one-run game after
Bryce Plante'18 drove in Bellinger and Leslie with a bloop single down the right field line, but the Raptors again answered with three runs in the bottom half of the inning to create additional distance between the squads.
The Purple and Gold would score runs in each of the final four innings, but Bard's advantage continued to grow as the Raptors outscored EC 8-5 to bring it to the 17-10 final.
EC had 13 hits, with three of those coming from the bat of Bellinger. Bellinger was 3-for-4 from the plate with two runs scored and one RBI. Leslie was one of three other Soaring Eagles with mutli-hit games, going 2-for-2 with two runs scored and two RBI. The other two-hit games came from Plante, who went 2-for-4, and Burghardt, who went 2-for-3.
Game Two: Bard 6, Elmira 0
EC had runners on second base twice in the top half of the first inning of game two, but Bard was able to keep Elmira off the scoreboard with a double-play and forcing Bellinger into a ground-out.
The Raptors took a 2-0 lead in the bottom of the first inning and after Elmira went 1-2-3 in the top of the second inning, Bard added another run to take a 3-0 lead heading into the third inning.
Elmira's best threat to cut into Bard's lead was in the top of the fourth inning, but the Raptors worked out of the jam and kept their 3-0 lead. Then, in the bottom of the fourth inning, Bard broke open the game with three more runs and made it 6-0. That would be the final score as EC fell 6-0 in the second game.
STEVENS v William Paterson
Freshman Anthony Hoagland went 5-for-5 with 10 RBIs to lead William Paterson past the Stevens Institute of Technology baseball team 16-1 on Wednesday.
The Pioneers (11-2) jumped out to an early lead in the top of the first inning and never looked back. After the first two runners reached base, Hoagland smacked a double to right center to score a run. WPU tacked on two runs in the inning on two run scoring groundouts. Sophomore
Zeph Walters belted a long home run to right for the Ducks (7-5) only run of the afternoon.
A throwing error and hit batsmen put runners on the corners for Hoagland in the top of the fifth and he delivered a three run dinger to deep right field to stretch the lead to five. The Pioneers poured on the runs in the following inning on only one hit, a grand slam to right center by Hoagland. In the top of the eighth, junior Tyler Garguilo hit an RBI double to right center which was followed up by yet another double by Hoagland, this time scoring two runs. William Paterson scored the final run of the game on an RBI groundout by junior Victor Sanchez.
Hoagland finished the contest with four extra base hits, while graduate student AJ Flores had two hits. Garguilo and Sanchez each had two runs batted in and freshman Marion Danza tossed six innings allowing only the one run on four hits with four strikeouts.
Senior
Peirce Marston allowed six runs (three earned) over five innings while fanning three and Walters recorded two hits for the Ducks.