AUBURNDALE, Fla. - Sunday was already going to be a long day for the Bard College baseball team, with two nine-inning games scheduled at the RussMatt Invitational.
It got a whole lot longer, though, when Bard's first game of the day went 13 innings. In all, Bard spent more than eight hours at Lake Myrtle Park Field No. 7. As it turned out, the extra innings were worth it.
Rory Maglich drove in the game-winning run with a two-out single in the bottom of the 13th, as Bard defeated previously unbeaten Hamilton, 5-4. Later, in a game that started more than an hour late, the Raptors lost to Nichols, 6-2.
The game against Hamilton was a real battle. Bard went up 1-0 in the third on a triple by Maglich and a single by
Jordan Myers. Hamilton scored twice in the fifth and once in the sixth to go up, 3-1, but consecutive singles by
Alex Luscher,
Nikolai Grumet and
Gunnar Schichtl pushed a run across to cut the deficit to 3-2 entering the seventh.
Hamilton went up 4-2 in the top of the eighth, but the Raptors battled back. With two outs and
Esteban Rivera on second, Grumet doubled down the right field line to make it 4-3, and Schichtl doubled to right-center on the next pitch, tying the game at 4-4.
Bard won it in the bottom of the 13th. Grumet walked with one out, and pinch-runner
Angelo Winings went to second, then third on consecutive wild pitches.
Spencer Checkoway walked and stole second, and Maglich singled through the left side, prompting a celebration.
Alex Bunnell was superb in relief and the got the win, striking out five over six innings with no walks. He was helped out defensively, especially in extra innings, by two diving plays in the outfield. one by
Jordan Myers in center, and the other by Grumet in right. Checkoway also made two sharp plays at third, snaring line drives in extras, one at his feet, the other over his head.
Grumet and Schichtl had three hits apiece, and Schichtl drove in two runs.
Nichols (6-5) defeated Bard, 6-2, in the nightcap. Each team managed just six hits, but the Bison's were more timely.
Nichols went up 1-0 on the solo homer in the bottom of the first by Christian Naccari (Ossining, NY), but Bard tied it up with an unearned run in the third. An error led to a two-run rally for Nichols in the fifth, and the Bison put up three more runs on four hits in the sixth, making it 6-1.
Frank Rybicki walked with two outs and went to second on a wild pitch in the seventh, and he scored on a single by Winings, but that was the last of the scoring for Bard.
Frank Ortega gave up five runs on six hits through five innings, striking out five. Tony Martignoli (Santa Rosa, CA) picked up the win, yielding two runs on five hits over 6.2 innings. Nichols is 6-5; Bard is 5-4.
The Raptors will have Monday off. They have two games remaining on this Spring Break trip, one on Tuesday vs. Stevenson, the other on Wednesday vs. Ripon.
