VIRGINIA BEACH, Va. – The Ithaca College baseball team earned its first victory of the 2020 season on Sunday afternoon as the Bombers downed Virginia Wesleyan, 8-2. Ithaca is now 1-2 on the season, while Virginia Wesleyan falls to 2-5.

IC received a masterful performance on the mound from senior Tom Cosentino, who tossed eight innings and allowed just two runs (one earned) on four hits. Cosentino also struck out five batters to just one walk. He induced 11 groundball outs and fired 74 strikes in 112 pitches (66-percent rate).

Junior Garrett Callaghan went 3-for-4 at the plate with two runs scored and two stole bases. Senior Buzz Shirley and junior Jack Lynch also logged multi-hit games with two apiece. Shirley was 2-for-4 with a run scored and an RBI, to go along with a double, while Lynch drove in a pair of runs and doubled in a 2-for-5 day at the dish.

Senior Trevor Rumsey scored twice and was 1-for-3 with a walk and two stolen bases, while sophomore Matt Smith drove in two runs and collected a base hit.

Freshman Garrett Bell closed out the game by striking out the side in the bottom of the ninth inning.

Neither team could push a run across until the top of the fourth inning when Lynch drove in Callaghan with a single through the left side. Callaghan led off the inning with a hit by pitch and moved into scoring position with a stolen base.

Virginia Wesleyan tied the game in the bottom half of the fourth, but the Bombers answered with a run in the fifth and sixth innings to build a 3-1 lead.

In the fifth, Rumsey led off with a walk and then stole second. He moved up to third on a fly out and scored on an RBI groundout to short by freshman Mike Nauta.

Ithaca's third run of the contest crossed the plate on a double by Lynch, which plated Shirley, who reached on his own two-base hit.

The Marlins pulled to within a run in the bottom of the seventh, but IC put the game away with a run in the eighth and four more in the ninth.

Callaghan reached base in the eighth on a one-out base hit and swiped another bag to set up an RBI double off the bat of Shirly to make the score 4-2. The Bombers then pushed four runs across in the ninth on three hits to account for the eventual final tally of 8-2.

In the ninth, freshman Gil Merod led off with a walk and then Rumsey reached on a bunt single. A walk to Nauta loaded the bases after Rumsey stole second and then Merod scored on a wild pitch for the first run of the inning. Smith followed with a two-run single which drove home Rumsey and Nauta, and the inning was capped off with a sac fly from freshman Alex Babcock.

The Bombers will travel to Allegheny College next weekend for three games against Allegheny and Alfred State.