WINTER HAVEN, Fla. - The Bard College baseball team swept both ends of a Sunday morning doubleheader from Minnesota-Morris, rallying to win the first game, 10-9, then cruising to victory in Game 2, 8-2.
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Both games were scheduled for seven innings, so the Raptors had to be feeling pretty good in Game 1, when Lee Perry's two-run triple gave Bard a 6-3 lead going into the bottom of the sixth. But the Cougars pushed five runs across on five hits - a homer, two doubles and a triple among them - to put themselves within three outs of victory, up 8-6 going to the top of the seventh.
Jordan Myers and Julian Gonzalez hit back-to-back singles to start the top of the seventh, then each moved up a base on a balk. David Schlosser put down a bunt single, scoring Myers, and Matt Lasky tripled to score Gonzalez and Schlosser and give Bard a 9-8 lead. Dillon Daine plated Lasky with a single, and it was 10-8. Now it was Bard that needed three outs to close it out.
Jackson Gessell (Grand Rapids, MN) cut Bard's lead to 10-9 with an RBI double, and the Cougars later had runners on first and second with one out. But Peter Oberg got a lineout to center and a strikeout to end the game.
Trent Johnson (Browerville, MN) took the loss for Minnesota-Morris. Brady Jergenson (Morris, MN) went 3-for-4 with a double and an RBI.
Bard starter Kyle Zigner gave up two earned runs over five innings, and Zach Hayes (1-0) got the win in relief, with Oberg picking up the save. Lasky went 2-for-4 with three RBI and three runs scored. Daine went 3-for-4 with an RBI, two stolen bases and two runs scored. Jeff Goldrosen went 3-for-4 with an RBI and a run scored, and Myers went 2-for-4 with two runs scored.
Bard junior Frank Ortega was the story of Game 2. He gave up four hits and one earned run over seven innings, striking out six, walking one, and improving to 2-0. An RBI double by Daine in the first and a run-scoring single by Schlosser in the second made it 2-0, and then Bard put up five runs in the fourth on three hits and two errors. A two-run double by Schlosser was key to that inning.
Jergenson (0-2) took the loss for Minnesota-Morris, giving up seven runs over three innings, though only three were earned. Gessell tripled and scored for the Cougars, who are 1-10.
Schlosser went 2-for-4 with three RBI and Daine drove in a pair as Bard evened its record at 4-4.
Bard's Spring Break trip continues through the middle of the week. The Raptors will play Worcester State on Tuesday, then Thomas College of Maine on Wednesday, before heading back to Honey Field for three games over the weekend.
