SARATOGA SPRINGS, NY – Fourth-seeded Ithaca College opened up the 2023 Liberty League Baseball Championship with an upset of the top-seeded University of Rochester, winning 7-4 at Skidmore's Castle Diamond.
Ithaca (26-14) has been a thorn in Rochester's side this Liberty League season, with three of the four losses in conference games coming against the Bombers.
On Thursday, the Bombers pounded out 16 hits, 15 of which were singles against the Yellowjacket pitching to power their late game rally.
Rochester (27-13) led 3-0 after two innings, but the Bombers scored six runs over the final four innings to claw their way back.
UR's Colby Cruser provided the big hit of the day for the Yellowjackets, clubbing a 3-run home run off Ithaca starter Kyle Lambert in the bottom of the second inning. The bomb scored Jackson Reed and Colton Avera who led off the inning with back-to-back base hits.
Unfortunately for Rochester, the bats went cold the rest of the game, as Lambert and reliever Matt Chase combined to surrendered just three hits over the final seven innings.
Lambert picked up the win, tossing 8.1 innings allowing 6 hits, 4 runs (3 earned) with 3 walks and 3 strikeouts.
Ithaca scraped a run across in the third on a wild pitch from UR starter Nolan Sparks.
The Yellowjackets led 3-1 through five, but Ithaca loaded the bases with one out in the sixth against Sparks, chasing the right-hander from the game. Sparks finished the day allowing 6 hits and 3 runs over 5.1 innings, striking out 3 and walking 2.
Reliever Matt Casiero couldn't hold the lead as Ithaca's Riley Brawdy singled on a hard hit to first base, with Gil Merod adding a sacrifice fly to level the score.
Aaron Whitley led off the bottom of the inning with a single for Rochester and reached third after a sacrifice and fly out, but ended up being stranded 90 feet from home.
Ithaca took the lead with two more runs in the seventh. Two singles sandwiched around a pop out put runners at the corners. After Thomas Karpishin got a strike out for the second out of the inning, Colin Shashaty laid down a suicide squeeze bunt which scored the go-ahead run. Ithaca's Mike Nauta followed with a single to left, putting the Bombers up 5-3.
Rochester threatened right back in the bottom half. With one out, John Moses singled and Luke Gregory was hit by a pitch. UR put on a double steal, and the throw down trying to get the trailing runner got away, allowing Moses to score and cut the lead to one.
Jacob Matzat followed with a four-pitch walk to put the go-ahead run on base. He and Gregory were then put into scoring position on a wild pickoff attempt at second base moved each runner up.
Lambert dug in for the Bombers, inducing a ground out and foul out to strand the UR go-ahead runners on base.
The Bombers loaded the bases in the top of the eighth but Rochester pitchers escaped with no damage, as Mark Aaronson earned a fielder's choice ground out to end the threat.
Ithaca tacked on two insurance runs in the ninth, aided by their lone double of the game from Brawdy, and a sacrifice fly from Merod.
In the bottom of the ninth, Gregory drew a 1-out walk, but Chase promptly got a UR pinch-hitter to ground into a double-play to end the game.
Cruser was the lone Yellowjacket to record multiple hits, going 2-for-4 with three RBI. Avera added a double, his team leading 16th of the season in a 1-for-3 effort.
Among Ithaca's 16 hits, three each came off the bat of Shashaty and Nauta who each went 3-for-5. Brawdy and Merod drove in two, while Collin Feeney and Shashaty each scored twice.
Rochester must now battle its way through the losers bracket in the tournament, with the Yellowjackets taking on the loser of the RIT-Skidmore game on Friday morning at 10 am in an elimination game.