PRINCE ATHLETIC COMPLEX – The University of Rochester baseball team pushed its winning streak to double-digit wins in a row on Tuesday evening at Towers Field, defeating visiting Hamilton College 6-4.
It was a bullpen game for both sides, as 12 total pitchers were used in the contest, six from each side. Rochester's final four relievers stole the show for the home team, as Luke Boylan, Aidan Cooney, Thomas Blaydes and Thomas Karpishin combined to allow just two hits and no walks over the final five innings, striking out six.
Boylan (1-0) earned the win for Rochester (20-4), while Karpishin locked down his fourth save of the season in the ninth.
Jason Cobert got the start and went two innings, striking out two and yielding one run, while Matt Casiero tossed two innings and gave up three runs while fanning two batters.
Offensively for the Yellowjackets, graduate student Matt Cappelletti was the leading hitter against his former team. The Hamilton graduate, and current UR grad student, went 3-for-4 with a double and key game-tying RBI in the fifth inning.
Six other Rochester hitters recorded one hit, with John Moses, Josh Leadem and Jackson Reed all notching a hit, run and RBI.
Three of Hamilton's four runs came courtesy of home runs. Phil Bernstein led off the game with a solo blast to center on the first pitch from Cobert, while Adam Wijaya clubbed a two-run shot in the fourth, putting the Continentals (12-10) up 4-3 at that time.
After Bernstein's home run put Hamilton up in the first, the Yellowjackets grabbed the lead in the bottom of the second, scoring three times. After a groundout, Moses doubled down the right field line. He was hit in by a Leadem double off the wall in left center and came around to score on a Reed blooper into center. Aaron Whitley delivered a sacrifice fly to put the Yellowjackets up 3-1.
In the third, Hamilton got back within one after a Shane Dux sacrifice fly, but Casiero stranded the tying run at third with a strikeout.
Wijaya's home run came with two outs in the fourth and gave Hamilton until Rochester plated two in the bottom of the fifth.
UR's go-ahead inning started with both Joseph Rende and Jacob Matzat getting hit by a pitch. Those two runners eventually came around to score after a Harper Sy sac bunt, Cappelletti RBI single and Moses fielders choice groundout, making the score 5-4 Rochester.
Sy came around to score in the seventh on a wild pitch after tripling into the right field corner, giving the Yellowjackets an insurance run late in the game.
The bullpen did its job in shutting down the Hamilton bats. After four innings, the Continentals had seven hits, but over the final five frames, just two batters reached base. Combined, the quartet of Boylan, Cooney, Blaydes and Karpishin retired 14 hitters in a row at one point.
Rochester returns to action on Wednesday with a matchup against #21 Oswego State in a rematch from last weeks game which the Yellowjackets won 8-4.