ITHACA, N.Y. – The Ithaca College baseball team walked-off with a 9-8 victory over Wells College on Thursday afternoon at Freeman Field to improve to 25-11 on the season. It was also the first time that head coach George Valesente coached against his son, David, as he is the head coach for the Wells baseball program.

The elder Valesente, who is in his 39th year at Ithaca and 44th overall as a head coach, has won more than 1,100 games in his career and two NCAA Division III national championships. The younger is in his first year as a collegiate head coach after serving as an assistant at his alma mater, St. Joseph's University in Philadelphia. David also played two seasons professionally within the Pittsburgh Pirates organization.

Ithaca went up 1-0 in the bottom of the first inning on a wild pitch. Junior Domenic Boresta reached on an infield single with one out and then moved his way to third on a walk and groundout before coming home on the errant delivery to the plate.

In the bottom of the second, sophomore John Peterson ripped a two-run double to the left-centerfield gap to give the Bombers a 3-0 lead. Sophomores Andrew Bailey and Adam Gallagher scored on the extra base hit. After a fielder's choice and error allowed Peterson to reach third, he would score on a groundout by senior Josh Savacool to make the score 4-0.

Sophomore Sam Little and senior Ryan Henchey led off the bottom of the third with back-to-back triple to plate Ithaca's fifth run of the game, and then Gallagher drove in Henchey with a base hit through the left side. After a pitching change, the Bombers scored two more runs on a pair of wild pitches.

Wells battled back in the top of the fifth with six runs on three hits and a pair of errors by the Bombers. The Express' big blow of the inning came on a triple with the bases loaded to start the rally. From there, a bloop base hit to right, fielder's choice and error brought in the final three runs.

The Express pushed another run across in the sixth inning to get to within a run at 8-7 on a groundout. Wells led off with a double and then drew a walk. A passed ball allowed both runners to move up which set up the run.

Ithaca had a chance to add runs in the bottom of the seventh as the Bombers loaded the bases with one out, but back-to-back fly outs ended the inning.

Wells tied the game up at 8-8 in the top of the ninth with a solo home run to left.

In the bottom of the ninth, Peterson, who went 4-for-4 in the game, doubled down the left field line and then moved to third on a wild pitch to set up the game-winning base hit by Savacool.

Junior Chris Marinaccio picked up the victory for Ithaca in 4.2 innings of relief. Marinaccio, who is now 3-0 on the season, gave up two runs (one earned) on three hits and struck out four batters. Sophomore Christian LaLomia earned the starting nod for the Bombers and tossed 4.1 innings and allowed six runs (three earned).

Offensively, Ithaca produced 16 hits. Henchey was 3-for-5, while Bailey, Carey and Gallagher each had two hits apiece.

The Bombers wrap up their regular season on Saturday with an Empire 8 Conference doubleheader against St. John Fisher College at Freeman Field.