ANNANDALE-ON-HUDSON, N.Y. - The Bard College baseball team fell twice to the Rochester Institute of Technology Sunday afternoon, as the team wrapped up its 2017 season.
The Raptors lost Game One, 7-2 and Game Two, 12-4.
With the losses, Bard finished its season with a 9-28 record overall and 4-20 in Liberty League play. The nine wins were just two shy of the Bard record set back in 2015.
Meanwhile, the Tigers of RIT improved to 30-7, 22-1 and were locked into the number one seed in the Liberty League playoffs.
The games also marked the end for
Adam Carafotes,
Quinn McInerney,
Jack Hawke,
Mark Leonhard,
Dylan Long,
Sam Grumet and
JP Fisher, as the seven are set to graduate in a few weeks.
While the seven players will certainly remember the great emotions they felt over the weekend, the Raptors unfortunately couldn't send them out with a win to finish off their careers.
To begin Game One, it was the Raptors who jumped out to the early lead. In the third inning, Bard scored a run off a
Jack Hawke groundout and used a
Julian Gonzalez sacrifice bunt in the fifth to add another.
The lead was short lived though, as Will Gorman (Nassau, NY) knocked in two runs on a triple and later scored himself on a passed ball in the bottom of the fifth. In the next inning, RIT would add four more runs to extend its advantage to 7-2, where the contest would finish.
Evan Richardson (2-6) picked up the loss for the Raptors, despite the fact that he threw pretty well in the game.
The sophomore went five innings, allowing just three hits and five runs (two earned). While he did strikeout four, he also walked five and hit a batter in the fifth inning, giving extra life to RIT's rally in the frame.
As for RIT, Daniel Zeglen (Scotia, NY) (6-0) threw a complete game to get the win. He allowed just three hits, two runs (one earned) and had two K's over the seven innings.
Esteban Rivera doubled for Bard in the loss.
Game Two played out very similarly to Game One, as the Raptors once again jumped out to a quick, 2-0 lead.
On the very first pitch of the game, senior
JP Fisher tripled to center field. Shortly after, senior
Quinn McInerney singled Fisher home for Bard's first run.
David Schlosser added a second run via a RBI single later in the inning.
But just like the first game, Bard's lead was short lived. The Tigers scored four in the bottom of the second, two in the third and one run in the fourth, fifth and sixth innings to go up, 9-2.
RIT would tack on three more in the eight inning, before Bard scored twice in the top of the ninth.
Rory Maglich hit a RBI double and Fisher, in the last at-bat of his career, knocked a man home thanks to his sacrifice fly to score the runs for Bard.
Kyle Zigner (0-6) finished his sophomore campaign with the loss. The right-hander lasted two and two-thirds innings, allowing 10 hits and six runs (all earned).
Ben Clough (Tolland, CT) (1-0) picked up the win for RIT, following the two shutout innings he threw in relief.
Fisher, Schlosser and
Dillon Daine tallied two hits in the contest, while RIT had six players record at least two hits during the Game Two win.
The Raptors will return to action in March 2018.
