ANNANDALE-ON-HUDSON,N.Y. - All he needed was one good pitch.
Adam Carafotes, Bard's all-time leader in hits, RBIs and home runs, cracked a walk-off solo home run in the bottom of the 10th Sunday afternoon, to give the Raptors a 4-3 win over Vassar College in Game Two of a doubleheader.
The senior, who had been held homerless all season, swung at the very first pitch of the inning and knew immediately it was gone over the left field wall.Â
As Carafotes rounding the bases, his teammates danced, cheered and celebrated over to home plate, waiting to mob their captain.
Carafotes was no doubt the star of the game, as he not only won it with his bat in the 10th, but with his arm too.
Just moments before he crushed the walk-off, he was called upon to get the final out in the top of the 10th with runners at first and third. After loading the bases on walk, Carafotes induced a groundball to second base to end the inning.Â
The Game Two win was the culmination of a great effort, that saw the Raptors rally from a 3-0 hole Vassar had built up earlier in the game.Â
The Brewers of Vassar jumped out to the 3-0 lead thanks to a fielder's choice in the third and a pair of wild pitches in the fourth, but Bard remained resilient.
The Raptors responded with three runs of their own in the bottom of the fifth, as
Lee Perry,
Jack Hawke and
Matt Lasky all had RBI singles in the frame.Â
Raptors' starter,
Kyle Zigner, had a solid day on the mound, as he went six innings, giving up six hits and just three runs. He also struckout four.
After Zigner was relieved,
Arya Bharatiya,
Rami Masani and Carafotes combined for just three hits over four scoreless innings, as Carafotes (1-0) picked up the win.Â
Billy Mathiesen (Rancho Palos Verdes, CA) (2-3) was issued the loss for Vassar, after throwing just one pitch in the game.Â
Hawke and
Jeff Goldrosen each recorded two hits for the Raptors in Game Two.Â
The win certainly came at a great time for Bard, as the team had been on a 15-game losing streak before the walk-off. Earlier in the day, Vassar topped Bard, 15-2, in Game One. In that contest,
David Schlosser and
Michael Uhle knocked in the runs for the hosts.
With the split on the day, Bard's record moved to 9-24 overall and 4-16 in Liberty League play. The Brewers remained at .500 at 16-16 overall, but their Liberty League playoff chances took a hit as their conference record fell to 9-8.Â
Up next for the Raptors is one last four-game series for the season, as they host conference No.1, RIT starting on May 6th. First pitch is scheduled for 1 p.m. and you can follow it right here via Live Stats and Live Video.
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