PRINCE ATHLETIC COMPLEX – Junior right-hander Garrett Renslow tossed the fifth ever no-hitter in University of Rochester baseball history as the Yellowjackets earned a 10-0 victory over visiting Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute on Thursday evening at Towers Field during the Liberty League conference tournament.
Renslow needed 110 pitches to get 27 outs, only yielding two walks and striking out eight in the career outing. The junior moves to 5-2 on the season and lowers his ERA to 1.78 on the season.
The no-hitter is the first for Rochester (25-14) since David Strandberg allowed no hits against Bard College during the 2014 regular season. Renslow's outing is believed to be the first no-hitter in Liberty League tournament history.
Top-seeded Rochester's win propels the Yellowjackets into the winners bracket, with UR taking on #2 seed Clarkson University in the 2 pm game on Friday afternoon. Clarkson walked off a 6-5 victory over RIT in earlier action on Thursday.
Rensselaer (20-18) falls into the elimination game scheduled for 11 am on Thursday against RIT.
Renslow was dominant from the start, breezing through the first two innings, needing only 22 pitches. His first blemish came in the third inning when RPI's Jake Chekian drew a 1-out walk.
No RPI hitter would reach again until the ninth inning when pinch hitter Michael Arboleda led off the inning with another walk. Renslow then got a strike out, fly out and ended the game in style by striking out Austin Lawrence for the final out, before promptly being mobbed by exuberant teammates on the mound.
The Yellowjackets got the scoring started in the third inning. Jake Hertz and Joseph Rende led off the inning with back-to-back singles through the right side. David Rieth attempted a sacrifice bunt, which RPI's catcher threw away into right field, allowing Rieth to reach and Hertz to score from second, giving Rochester the 1-0 lead.
RPI starter Christopher Palmiero did a nice job to escape the inning without further damage though, getting an out on an attempted double-steal, followed by a ground out and fly out.
In the fifth inning, Rochester used three straight 2-out hits to boost the lead to 3-0. Rende singled, Rieth followed with an RBI double to center, with Jacob Matzat singling in Rieth with a hit to left.
Four more runs came across for UR in the sixth. Jack Herman led off with his team leading 7th home run of the season. Rende then provided an RBI groundout and Rieth picked up two more RBI's with a single to left field.
The final runs came in the eighth inning. Hertz singled up the middle to drive in Steve Pickering, Rieth recorded his fourth RBI, plating Harper Sy, while Aiden Finch laced a line drive to center to score Rieth.
Eight of UR's nine hitters in the lineup recorded a base hit, led by Rieth who was 3-4 with a double, 2 runs and 4 RBI. Hertz ended 2-3 with two runs, while Sy went 2-4 and also scored twice, adding a double.
Matzat and Finch both finished 2-5 with an RBI while Rende was 2-4 at the plate.
For RPI, Palmiero was tagged with the loss, going six innings while surrendering 9 hits, 7 runs (6 earned) with 1 strikeout. Reliever Mike Tagaris tossed two innings and gave up three runs (1 earned) with two strikeouts for the Engineers.