#3 Ithaca - 5, #6 Castleton State
Farmingdale, N.Y. - Freshman Andrew Sanders threw the first complete game of his career to lead the Ithaca College baseball team (29-9-1) to a 5-2 win over Castleton State (34-16) in Friday's second game at the NCAA New York Regional at Farmingdale. Sixth-seeded Castleton State was eliminated; the third-seeded Bombers advance to face the host Rams, the tournament's second seed, in an elimination game at 6:30 p.m. The winner will need to defeat top-seeded Cortland twice Saturday to win the regional title.
Sanders (2-0), who had never pitched more than six innings in his previous nine appearances, held the Spartans to eight hits and kept them off the board until the eighth inning. He struck out a career-best eight batters and issued two walks.
The Bombers scored a single run in four of their last five at-bats to pull away. Junior catcher Kevin Primm and sophomore third baseman Colby Gee both had two of Ithaca's nine hits. Primm doubled in a run in the fifth inning to put Ithaca up 2-0 and two innings later he scored to stretch the Bomber lead to 4-0.
In the Castleton State eighth, junior catcher Zack Mayo doubled to left with one out and scored on senior Peter Wagner's triple to the right field wall. Junior Cameron Curler followed with a sacrifice fly to bring the Rams to within 5-2 but Sanders retired the game's final four hitters to send Ithaca to Friday's final game.
Senior shortstop Tim Locastro led off the Bomber first with a single and moved to second on a walk to senior center fielder Mike Rosenbaum. After a sacrifice bunt moved both runners up, Gee put Ithaca ahead with a run-scoring grounder.
Primm's fifth-inning double scored junior left fielder Andrew Turner, who'd been hit by a pitch. An inning later, senior first baseman Mike Preite singled to drive in senior right fielder Teagen Barresi – who'd reached on a fielder's choice, stole second and took third on a wild pitch. Primm led off the seventh in the eighth and scored two batters later on an RBI single by Rosenbaum. Ithaca's final run came in the eighth on a pinch-hit single by freshman Max Addy that scored Gee, who'd doubled to left center to lead off the inning.
Junior Patrick Riley took the loss for the Rams, allowing four runs over seven innings.