HENRIETTA, NY – The University of Rochester baseball team used a four-run final inning to earn a game two victory, salvaging a doubleheader split against the Rochester Institute of Technology on Saturday afternoon at Tiger Stadium.

The host Tigers took the opener by a 9-4 score, scoring eight runs in their final two at-bats to power past Rochester, with the Yellowjackets earning a 4-2 victory in game two.

Rochester remains in first place in the overall Liberty League standings with a 13-3 record in conference games, sitting at 26-9 overall. RIT moves to 17-16 overall and is 7-9 in the conference.

In game one, the Yellowjackets got on the board first, scoring in the top of the first inning when Brian McKinsey singled in Aaron Whitley who led off the game with an infield single.

The one-run lead remained until the fourth inning when the Tigers used a defensive miscue to plate an unearned run, knotting the game at 1-1.

Rochester starter Nolan Sparks surrendered a walk and single to the first two batters in the fifth, ending his day at four-plus innings. He finished the game allowing four hits and two walks while striking out seven.

Aidan Cooney relieved and escaped the jam, getting a strikeout and double play to keep the game tied.

Cooney remained in the game until the seventh when the Tigers took the lead scoring three runs. The first two batters singled, and after a fielders choice put runners at the corners, a Patrick Blackall sacrifice fly gave RIT the lead.

After another single, Cooney was pulled for Luke Boylan who got the third out of the inning via strikeout, but a wild pitch allowed the batter to reach and keep the inning alive. Nic Stagnitta made the Yellowjackets pay by singling in two more runs, boosting the RIT lead to 4-1.

Rochester scraped one run back in the eighth when Harper Sy singled in Jackson Reed, but the Tigers parlayed a pair of UR errors on sacrifice bunts into a big five-run inning of their own to make the score 9-2.

Sy was the lone Yellowjacket with multiple hits in the game, going 3-for-3 with an RBI.

In the ninth, Joseph Rende drew a bases loaded walk and McKinsey added a sacrifice fly to make the score 9-4, but it was too little, too late for Rochester.

Cooney (0-1) was saddled with the loss, yielding three runs over 2.2 innings. John Arnold picked up the win for RIT, going seven innings with five strikeouts. He allowed five hits and one run.

Game two was a pitchers duel for the first five innings, as a combined ten straight zeroes were put up by RIT's Jon Opalewski and Rochester's Jason Cobert.

In the sixth, Cobert gave up a leadoff single to Blackall and was removed from the game with the score still tied. Sammy Rosenfield took over on the mound and gave up a 2-run home run to RIT's clean-up hitter Chris Reilly before finishing off the inning.

Rochester was now up in the seventh, its final at-bat, needing at least two to stay alive. After a leadoff groundout against Opalewski, Sy was hit by a pitch to start the Rochester rally.

RIT stuck with its starting pitcher, who followed by giving up a single to Jacob Matzat to put the tying runners on base. A walk to pinch-hitter Colby Cruser loaded the bases.

A strikeout pulled the Tigers within one out of closing out the game, but senior Luke Piontek laced a base hit up the middle to score two runs, tying the game at 2-all.

With runners now on the corners, pinch runner Josh Leadem was able to steal home on a first-and-third rundown play, putting Rochester in front. The next batter, Reed, completed Rochester's big inning with an RBI triple to right, scoring Piontek.

In the bottom of the seventh, Rochester turned to closer Thomas Karpishin for the save. Sam Kulp singled to lead off the frame, but was thrown out at second, trying to stretch his hit into a double. Karpishin ended it after getting a groundout and strikeout.

Piontek finished the game 2-for-2 with a walk, run and two RBI.

Rochester was limited to just four hits by Opalewski who finished the game with four runs and two walks allowed. He struck out seven.

Rosenfield earned the win for the Yellowjackets, his second of the season, striking out two in his inning. Cobert went five-plus innings and struck out three, giving up one run on three hits. Karpishin's fifth save of the year pulls him up to fourth most in a single season in Rochester history.

The same two teams meet tomorrow for the series finale at Rochester's Towers Field for a noon start. Before the game, UR will honor its 12 seniors and graduate students before the game with a Senior Day celebration.