Potsdam, NY – Jake Millich drilled a two-run double into deep right to score a pair in the bottom of the ninth as the Clarkson University Baseball team earned a split against St. Lawrence University, taking game one 10-9 before the Saints claimed the nightcap 2-0 on Friday afternoon at Jack Phillips Stadium.

The Golden Knights moved to 11-20 overall and 9-8 in the Liberty League and St. Lawrence saw its record to go 10-19 and 4-13. The two teams will be rained out on Saturday, but game three of the series is scheduled for a 12:00 noon start on Sunday.

With the game one win, Clarkson clinched the fourth spot in the West Division standings and the team will face Skidmore College in the Liberty League Crossover series next weekend in Saratoga Springs. The two teams faced one another last year as well, with the Knights sweeping the Thoroughbreds and advancing to the conference tournament.

The start of the first game looked far from great, as the Saints had two runs in the first and two more in the second for an early 4-0 lead. Tim Connor cleared the right field fence by a few feet to put the Saints up 2-0 after just two batters in the first, and Ty Creagh drove in a run with a single in the third in advance of Caleb Clark's bases loaded walk, putting the score at 4-0. Clarkson picked up four unearned runs in the bottom of the second. Caleb Doyle drove home Kent Wilson with an RBI ground out and Joe Pagano sent Aidan Kuefner home with a double to put the tally at 4-2. After Colby Brouillette drew a walk to put runners on first and second, Joe Figliolino singled sharply up the middle to plate Pagano, but the ball scooted under the centerfielder's glove, allowing Brouillette to score all the way from first.

In the fourth, Jimmy Liberatore put the Saints back up briefly with an RBI single, but in the bottom half of the frame, Colby Brouillette hit a moonshot over the right-center wall, clearing it as well as the 10-foot tall berm behind the scoreboard. St. Lawrence did reclaim the lead in the sixth with an RBI single and a throwing error sending two in, and in the top of the eighth a squeeze play made it 8-5. However, in the bottom half of the frame, Brouillette and Millich traded places with doubles, and a sacrifice fly from Cam Jerrett made it a one-run game. St. Lawrence seemingly picked up an insurance run in the top of the ninth on Clark's sac fly.

In the bottom of the ninth, Doyle was retired for an early out, but the Clarkson offense pushed three runs across before another out was made. Joe Pagano was hit by a pitch and moved to second when Brouillette singled. Figliolino doubled down the left field line to score Pagano, and with runners on second and third, St. Lawrence was faced with the possibility of walking Millich to load the bases and create a force, but simultaneously putting itself in a situation where a bases loaded walk or wild pitch might tie the game. The Saints chose to pitch to Millich and he ripped a double over the head of Caleb Clark in right, sending Brouillette in easily and pinch-runner Will Roda from second with the winning run.

Brouillette finished 4-for-5 with four runs scored, two doubles and a home run, Figliolino and Millich each had three hits, and Kent Wilson and James Mason each picked up two hits in the win.

For as long as game one was with its 19 runs and 34 combined hits, game two was a race to the finish with only nine hits in seven innings. The lone runs came in during the top of the fifth when Creagh reached on an error and Connor had his second home run of the day, a shot to right-center that cleared the wall by about five feet. Clarkson had runners in scoring position in the fourth, fifth, and sixth innings and could not cash in on any of the chances. The Saints also nearly picked up an insurance run or two in the seventh when they put runners on the corners with no one out. However, the first out was made on the base paths with a caught stealing, and then an attempted sac fly saw Joe Pagano gun down a runner at the plate to keep the tally at 2-0.