ANNANDALE-ON-HUDSON, N.Y. - The Bard College baseball team lost both games it played Saturday afternoon, falling 2-1 in Game One and 12-0 in Game Two against Union College.
The losses dropped the Raptors to 8-18 overall and 3-11 in Liberty League play; the Dutchmen of Union jumped to 14-10, 9-5.
While Bard lost its first game in bitter fashion (see below), an outstanding performance from starting pitcher,
Evan Richardson, must be recognized, as he set a few records on the day. Richardson went six and a third innings, allowed just five hits, two runs (one earned) and struck out 12.
With the 12 K's, Richardson now owns the Bard baseball record for career strikeouts. The sophomore now has 75 career K's, passing the previous mark of 70, which was held by
JP Fisher.
The 12 strikeouts were also good enough for second best on the all-time Bard single game list, just two behind Ryan Conklin's all-time mark of 14 K's, set back in March 2013. The 12 strikeouts are also just the second time a Bard pitcher has ever struckout double-digit batters in a game.
Despite the great effort from Richardson though, the hosts ultimately lost both games in two very different ways on the day.
Game One was Bard's for the taking, as the Raptors struck first in the contest. After two and a half scoreless innings to start the game, the Raptors were able to grab the lead thanks to a
Quinn McInerney single, two wild pitches and an RBI single from
Preston Gittelson in the bottom of the third to go up, 1-0.
From there, the game remained scoreless until the top of the seventh, as Richardson and Jake Vesling (Doylestown, PA) were dealing on the afternoon.
After Richardson worked some magic to get out of fifth and sixth inning jams, he couldn't come up with the trifecta in the seventh, as the game got away from Bard late.
After allowing a leadoff double to start the inning, Richardson gave up a bunt single to move the runner over to third, which allowed the next Union batter to score the tying run on a sacrifice fly.
From there,
Alex Bunnell came in to pitch the rest of the inning, but Union used two stolen bases and a throwing error to score its second run to take the lead in the contest.
After that point, the Raptors looked like the wind had been taken from their sails, as they couldn't muster anymore runs in the game or the rest of the afternoon.
Richardson received the loss in Game One, while Vesling got the complete game win for Union, going all seven innings, allowing just six hits, one run and striking out seven along the way.
McInerney and
David Schlosser each recorded two hits during the Game One loss.
After the pitcher's duel in Game One, the offensive flood gates opened in Game Two ... for Union at least. The Dutchmen put up 12 unanswered runs on 20 hits in the second game, while Bard was held to no runs on just five hits.
Frank Ortega was the losing pitcher for Bard, after he went five and a third innings, with nine hits allowed and five earned runs.
Ryan Kuchar (Merrimac, MA) picked up the Game Two win for Union. He went seven innings, allowed just two hits and no runs.
Up next for Bard, two more games with Union College tomorrow. These will be played at Schenectady, NY and first pitch is scheduled for noon.
