ITHACA, N.Y. (March 26, 2018)  – Senior Quinn DiPasquale allowed one earned run over six solid innings, sophomore Patrick Rood hit his first career grand slam. and the Stevens Institute of Technology Baseball team climbed back to .500 with an 8-4 victory over Ithaca College Monday in an Empire 8 Conference game played at Freeman Field. 

Freshman catcher Nathan Zuckerman went 2-for-3 and scored two runs for the Ducks, who won their second straight game to move to 9-9 on the season and 2-1 in E8 play. Stevens took two of three games from Ithaca over the weekend to win the three-game series. Per Ithaca Athletic Communications, the series win was the first-ever for Stevens in the long history between the programs..

Sam Little went 2-for-4 with two RBI for Ithaca, who fell to 8-7 on the year and 2-1 in the Empire 8. 

"It's always great to start conference play on the right foot," said head coach Kristaps Aldins. "Especially satisfying to do it on the road versus a quality team like Ithaca. We are entering a busy stretch of baseball over the next two weeks. We will enjoy today's win and move our attention to a big matchup versus Elmira on Wednesday."

Trailing by a run, Stevens exploded for seven runs in the fifth, taking advantage of a throwing error by pitcher Tyler Hill (1-3). Junior Donny Gherardi worked a full-count walk to lead off the inning. Junior Carlos Leon reached on a bunt single. Freshman Ambrose Consol attempted to sacrifice the runners, but Hill threw the ball away, allowing Gherardi to score. Zuckerman reached on a bunt single to again lose the bases. 

Senior Tommy Baronner plated the second run of the inning with a sacrifice fly. Hill hit junior Matthew Pasko to extend the rally. Freshman Thomas Paulich lofted a sacrifice fly to right to score Consol. Pasko stole second and senior Alex Detweiler walked to load the bases for the second time in the inning, forcing an Ithaca pitching change. Rood greeted Chris Marinaccio by lofting the right-hander's first pitch well over the left wall for his third home run of the season. 
Six of the seven runs in the inning were unearned. Ithaca committed three errors on the day and 12 in the series. Hill allowed six runs on the afternoon with only one of the runs being earned. 

After Wes Little's RBI single opened the day's scoring, DiPasquale (2-2) kept Ithaca off the board until the sixth. The right-hander scattered five hits and struck out six to earn the victory.

Ithaca rallied for a pair of runs off Roy Iversen in the seventh, but freshman Joseph Deitz pitched 2 1-3 hitless innings to preserve the victory.

With his fifth-inning walk, Detweiler has reached base in 17 of 18 games this season.

Up Next: Baseball welcomes Elmira College to Dobbelaar Field on March 28. First pitch is scheduled for 2:00 p.m. The other two games in the three-game set will be played at Elmira's Dunn Field on April 4.

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