Canton, N.Y.— A depleted Skidmore pitching staff reached
down and tossed a combined four-hitter to lead the Thoroughbreds to
a 3-1 win in the Liberty League championship game Sunday in
Canton.
Skidmore (30-15) will get its NCAA tournament assignment on
Monday, with play starting Wednesday.It was the fourth-straight
elimination game win for the Thoroughbreds, marking the first time
in league history a team has won the title after losing the first
game. The win capped a 6-0 season sweep of the Saints (28-14).
Max
Martins, pitching on two days rest, allowed one run on
three hits in seven innings. Jordan
Keysor closed the door with two shutout innings, after
winning game two on Friday.
Skidmore lost its first game in the tournament, but then battled
back, beating Rochester and Rensselaer, each by 8-3 scores, in
elimination games and then beating the regular season champion
Saints 7-5 in the first of two games for the title. The
Thoroughbreds completed the run with Sunday's 3-1 win, denying the
regular season champion the league tournament title for the seventh
consecutive year. Skidmore's 2005 team was the last team to win
both the regular season and the tournament. The Thoroughbreds also
earned the league's automatic bid to the NCAA tournament.
Leejay
Pollacchi, who hit .368, was six for six in steals and
made a key diving catch to help Skidmore to the win in game six of
the tournament, was named tourney MVP. He was joined by teammates
Martins and Keysor, Zach Rudman and Geoff
Green. Carter Franz, Andrew Schreyack and Jeff Kott
represented SLU while Kyle LaVigne and Andrew Kalish represented
RPI and Jon Ludwig was selected from Rochester.
Martins, who came back after throwing 5.1 innings in Thursday's
loss to RPI and appearing in relief in Saturday's 7-5 win over the
Saints, gave up a leadoff double to Bryan Palermo and then retired
11 in a row. Palermo scored the Saints' only run as he went to
third on a fly ball by Carter Franz to center and scored on Khifer
O'Connor's ground out. The Saints didn't get another base runner
until the fifth when Paul Piatelli singled up the middle. Piatelli
went to second on a balk, but Martins got a pair of pop-ups and a
line out to come out of the inning unscathed.
Skidmore tied the game against Saint starter Riley in the fourth
as Zach Rudman walked and went to third when Matty
Tatkow reached on an error. Erik
Watkins delivered a sacrifice fly to center to score the
tying run. The Thoroughbreds went on top in the top of the fifth as
Green led off with a single, but was forced at second on
Pollacchi's grounder. Pollacchi then stole second and scored on
Brian
Lowry's single to center, just beating the tag of Saint
catcher Matt D'Auteuil at the plate on a throw from Franz.
The Thoroughbreds made it a 3-1 game in the sixth as Watkins was
hit by a pitch, sacrificed to second and after a walk to Nick
Barra, Jesse
Frehling grounded out to put runners on second and third.
Schreyack replaced Riley on the mound for the Saints and Green beat
out an infield hit to first with Watkins scoring what proved to be
the game's final run.
The Saints threatened in the seventh when Kott hit a leadoff
single, but Martins worked out of that jam and finished his outing
with three hits allowed and one run in seven innings. Andrew
Bannon came on to pitch the eighth and hit Ethan Braddock
and Palermo to start the inning, but Keysor, who pitched the win
over Rochester, came on and got Skidmore out of the inning with two
fly outs and a grounder.
Keysor then ended it, sandwiching a ninth inning double by Brian
Magovney with a pair of strikeouts and then getting a ground out
for the final out.