ANNANDALE-ON-HUDSON, N.Y. - It gets late early in the world of Liberty League baseball.
The season is compacted into about six weeks, with conference foes meeting on average four times a week. Get too far behind after a couple of weeks, and it might already too late to climb back into playoff contention.
The Bard College baseball team was swept by RPI on Saturday, leaving the Raptors with a 1-5 conference record. They played with desperation and precision on Sunday, riding solid pitching and good defense to a sweep of RPI and a crucial split of the series.
Bard won Game 1, 5-3, behind a great pitching performance from freshman
Evan Matthews. He got into trouble in the top of the first, as RPI loaded the bases with no outs, but a double play and a foul out limited the damage to one run. Bard tied it in the bottom of the second on a run-scoring triple by
Esteban Rivera.
In the top of the fourth, another double play got Matthews out of a jam, and Bard took the lead for good with a four-run bottom of the fourth.
Rory Maglich,
Alex Luscher and
Robert Arciola each had RBI singles, then with two outs,
Jordan Myers doubled to drive in another run to make it 5-1 going into the fifth in a game scheduled for seven.
RPI pushed two across in the top of the fifth, but Rivera gunned down an RPI baserunner attempting to steal to mute the rally. It was 5-3.
Matthews got through the sixth, and was replaced by
Elliott Goldstein in the top of the seventh. He walked the leadoff man, but Bard's third double play of the game eliminated that baserunner, and Goldstein got a strikeout for the final out and his first save.
Matthews (1-1) gave up three runs on five hits with five strikeouts and three walks. RPI got a quality start from Ryan Yerby (Montara, CA), who pitched a complete game, giving up five runs (four earned) on eight hits. Maglich went 3-for-3 for Bard; RPI was held to just five hits.
Bard was outhit, 14-5, in Game 2, and won the game anyway. Bard starter
Frank Ortega (2-2) was in trouble frequently but the Engineers never really got to him. leaving 15 runners on base. It was 2-2 until the bottom of the seventh, when Rivera played the hero again, driving in a pair with a triple.
The Raptors brought freshman
Spencer Checkoway in to relieve Ortega in the top of the eighth. RPI put runners on second and third with two outs, but he got a strikeout to end the inning. And in the ninth, he struck out the side to earn his first save.
Ortega gave up just two runs on 12 hits, with five strikeouts and three walks. Jack Vaccari (Hopkinton, MA) went 4-for-5 and drove in both of RPI's runs.
Rivera went 4-for-11 in the series with a homer, two triples, six RBI and three runs scored. Bard is 9-10 overall, 3-5 in conference play. RPI is 9-8, 5-3.
Up next for Bard is a non-league game against United States Merchant Marine Academy on Wednesday. Follow it live right here.
