RPI TAKES LIBERTY LEAGUE TITLE WITH 13-4 WIN OVER SAINTS

 

May 11: St. Lawrence made its way to the Liberty League baseball championship game for the third straight year with a 9-8 win over Rochester on Saturday, but the Red Hawks prevailed 13-4 in the title game and earned the automatic NCAA berth that goes with the league title.

 

RPI, 33-10, jumped out to a 3-0 lead through three innings and put up four runs in both the bottom of the fourth and sixth innings to seal the title.

 

Jeff Graceffo, the Saint starter and one of six pitchers for the Saints in the game, took the loss.

 

Ryan Duff, Joel Kocan and Matt Carrigg accounted for six of the Saints' ten hits in the game with two each. The Saints close their season with a 21-18 record, the third straight 20-or-more win season for the Saint program.

 

Steve Bodnar beat Clarkson 4-1 in Saturday's first elimination game to keep the Saints alive in the tournament and the Saints made the championship round with a 9-8 win over regular season champion Rochester.

 

Graceffo earned the win for the Saints in the Rochester game .with two innings of scoreless relief in a back and forth game which was decided when Ryan Duff singled up the middle to lead off the 11 th. Duff was sacrificed to second by Chris Donaldson and scored when Christian Spicer delivered a double to right center.

 

Rochester took a 1-0 lead in the bottom of the second, but the Saints went up 2-1 with two in the top of the third as Joe Shehata reached on a bunt single, went to second on a single by Tim Harris and scored when Andrew Ford’s sacrifice bunt was misplayed. Harris scored the second run on a ground out to put the Saints in front.

 

It went to 5-1 in the top of the fourth on a two-run single by Matt Carrigg and a run-scoring single by Shehata, but Rochester got one back in the bottom of the fourth and tied the game with three in the bottom of the fifth off Saint starter Sean Voss.

 

The Saints went back up by an 8-5 count in the top of the sixth as Harris delivered a run scoring single, Ford reached on an error with a run scoring and Duff hit a run scoring double. Rochester tied it with three in the eighth and the two teams played scoreless ninth and tenth innings before the Saints took the lead in the top of the 11 th.

 

Duff went four for six for the Saints while Shehata had three hits and Rob Tole and Harris had two hits each for the Saints. Sean Voss was the Saint starter with relief from Chris Cook and Matt Skelly in addition to Graceffo.

 

Bodnar pitched a six hitter, striking out ten in the 4-1 win over Clarkson in the first elimination game.

Bodnar won his fifth of the year and shut Clarkson out until the top of the ninth inning as the Saints won their 20 th game of the year. SLU, 20-17, has now won 20 or more in three consecutive seasons.

 

The Saints grabbed an early 2-0 lead with two in the bottom of the first inning as Andrew Ford hit a one-out double and went to third on Ryan Duff’s single up the middle. Both Ford and Duff scored on a pair of errors on Joel Kocan’s ground ball.

 

It went to 2-0 in the bottom of the second as Joe Shehata walked and moved to third on Tim Harris’ double down the left field line. Ford then singled up the middle to score Shehata and Harris scored on Duff’s sacrifice fly.

 

That ended the scoring in the game until a single and triple produced Clarkson’s run in the top of the ninth.

For was three for four and Harris and Charlie Cannan each had two hits for the Saints in the Clarkson game.

 

 

ZONGOL TOPS SAINTS IN LIBERTY LEAGUE OPENER

May 9: Liberty League Pitcher of the Year Joe Zongol of Rensselaer improved to 9-1 on the season and held St. Lawrence to five hits, striking out seven, as the Red Hawks moved into the winners bracket with a 6-1 win in the opener of the Liberty League Tournament at Rochester Friday morning.

 

The Saints, now 19-17 overall, will play an elimination game against the loser of Friday’s game two between regular season champion Rochester and fourth place Clarkson at 11 a.m. on Saturday.

 

Friday’s game was a lot closer than the final score might indicate as Troy Lassial and Zongol locked up in a pitcher’s duel until RPI broke things open with four in the bottom of the eighth.

 

RPI, 31-10 on the year, opened the scoring with a run in the bottom of the first as Sean Wilkes was hit by a pitch, moved to second on a groundout and scored on Dan Valentine’s single. The Saints came back to tie it in the third as Matt Carrigg walked, was sacrificed to second by Joe Shehata, went to third on a wild pitch and scored on a ground out by Tim Harris.

 

The Red Hawks took a 2-1 lead in the bottom of the seventh on a two-out bunt single by Wilkes, a steal and Jim Devine’s run-scoring single.

 

RPI then put things away in the bottom of the eighth as Valentine doubled and scored on Camden Mamigonian’s triple, a run scoring single by Ken Carroll and a two run single by Wilkes.

 

 

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