ANNANDALE-ON-HUDSON, N.Y. - The Bard College baseball team lost a pair of games Saturday afternoon, falling in the first game by the score of 4-3 and 11-2 in the second to Liberty League rival, Rochester Institute of Technology.

The losses dropped the Raptors to 9-26 overall and 4-18 in conference play, while the Tigers of RIT upped their record to 28-7, 20-1.

Before the first pitch was thrown in Game One, Bard took the time to honor the team's seven seniors, who are playing the last games of their college careers this weekend. 

JP Fisher, Quinn McInerney, Jack Hawke, Mark Leonhard, Sam Grumet, Adam Carafotes and Dylan Long received framed jerseys and had their photos taken with family and teammates pregame, as the Raptors celebrated their graduating class.

All seven players have had a major impact on the program over the past four years and will be remembered for their contributions, both on and off the field. 

Bard Athletics would like to thank the players for their commitment and effort to Bard Baseball over the last few years and wish them nothing but the best in their future endeavors.

Once all the pregame activities and celebrations were over, the Raptors had to quickly shift focus to the game at hand.

Unfortunately for Bard, RIT wasn't in the mood to let the hosts enjoy Senior Day for too long, as the visitors got on the board right in the first inning. 

RIT's leadoff hitter, Navada Waterman (Coudersport, PA), reached base via a Bard fielding error to start the game. Following a ground-rule double, that moved Waterman to third, he scored two batters later on an RBI groundout to shortstop to hand the Tigers the early lead. 

Bard had a golden opportunity to tie the game up in the bottom of the third, but failed to do so because of a base-running mistake. The Raptors had men on first and third is the frame, with only one out and the all-time leader in hits at-bat in Carafotes. 

While the senior was unable to record a hit, he did drive the ball to deep right field, which should have scored the man on third via the sacrifice fly.

However, the runner at first base missed the bag when he attempted to tag up going to second, which allowed the Tigers to record one of the strangest double-plays in baseball, and more importantly, escape the inning with no runs allowed. 

From there, RIT would tack on three more runs in the fourth to push its lead to 4-0. 

That advantage was short lived however, as the Raptors would get three back in the the bottom of the fifth thanks to one swing of the bat.

After failing to drive in any runs in his previous at-bat, Carafotes responded in a big way, blasting a three-run home run to left field. The homer was his second in as many games, following his walk-off against Vassar last weekend. 

Unfortunately for Bard, the game-winning heroics from the Vassar game didn't carry over to today, as the team was held scoreless over the final two innings, as RIT escaped with the 4-3 victory. 

Frank Ortega (2-5) picked up the loss for the Raptors, despite his complete game effort. The sophomore allowed six hits, four runs (three earned) and struckout two. 

Brian Reed (Rochester, NY) (7-1) earned the win for RIT, following his four inning shutout he threw to open the game. 

McInerney added two more hits for the season, while David Schlosser collected two walks for the Raptors. 

Following the close affair of the first game, Game Two was a much tougher outing for Bard, as the team fell, 11-2.

The hosts were held without a hit until the bottom of the seventh, when the score was already 10-0 in RIT's favor. The Tigers scored three runs in the second, one in the fourth, six in the seventh and one more in the ninth. 

Bard did score twice in the bottom of the ninth, thanks to RBI singles from Fisher and Schlosser. 

Carafotes (1-1), making his first career pitching start, finished with the loss despite allowing just four hits and four runs (none earned) over four innings. He also finished with four strikeouts. 

Stevie Branche (New Paltz, NY) (3-1) received the win for RIT. He went five innings, allowed no hits and recorded seven K's 

Schlosser finished Game Two with two hits, an RBI, two walks and a stolen base. 

Up next for Bard, the final two games of the season, as the Raptors host RIT once again. Those games are scheduled for tomorrow (May 7th) at Honey Field. First pitch will be at 11 a.m. and you can follow the games right here.