SCHENECTADY, NY – The Union College baseball team collected four runs on four hits in the bottom of the sixth inning to break open the game against SUNYIT, winning, 6-1, Tuesday afternoon at Buck Ewing Field. Union starter
Matt Sheehan (Lexington, MA/ Belmont Hill) earned his first win of the season, holding the Wildcats scoreless in the first five innings while striking out three and allowing just two hits.
Union (6-16, 5-9 Liberty League) took a 1-0 lead in the bottom of the opening frame when designated hitter
Josh McKelligan (Canton, MA/ Salisbury School) plated
Matt Smith (Latham, NY/ LaSalle Institute) with an RBI single to right center.
Matt Wentworth (North Andover, MA/ North Andover) led off the bottom of the fifth inning with a single to left, stole second and crossed the plate on a single to left center by freshman
Andy Brown (Saratoga Springs, NY/ Saratoga Springs) to give the Dutchmen a 2-0 lead at the end of five. Brown went 1-for-2 on the day with a pair of RBI.
The Wildcats (5-20, 1-11 SUNYAC) picked up an unearned run in the top of the sixth inning when sophomore Justin Marsden (Whitesboro, NY) stole third and advanced to score on an errant throw to the bag. Marsden walked to lead off the inning and advanced to second when Ben Bushey (Hoosick Falls, NY) reached on a walk from reliever
Roy Eriksen (South Nyack, NY/ The Hackley School). Righthander
Brian McLaughlin (Norwood, NJ/ Old Tappan) worked out of the jam and after walking one in the seventh, retired the batters in order.
The Dutchmen's big inning started with a
Kyle Murphy (Plymouth, MA/ Phillips Andover Academy) single. Murphy advanced when catcher
Zach Tillo (Lancaster, MA/ Exeter) single to left.
Colin McKelligan (Canton, MA/ Salisbury) reached on a blooper hit, but the attempted throw to first sailed by the bag, allowing Murphy and Tillo to score and McKelligan to advance two bases. Wentworth walked to put runners on the corners before
Paul Mene (Falls Church, VA/ George Mason HS) launched his first career extra-base hit, a double into right center, scoring McKelligan. Wentworth crossed the plate on Brown's groundout to the pitcher to cap the four-run frame for the Dutchmen. Mene's
Colin McKelligan took the mound to start the eighth inning to retire the batters in order, ending when Bushey grounded into a 6-4-3 double play.
John Moore (Westport, MA/ Moses Brown) struck out one and gave up one hit in the final inning.
SUNYIT starter Dan Mende (Monroe, NY) allowed five runs on nine hits while walking one in 5.1 innings. Zynon Putney (North Chili, NY) struck out one and allowed one unearned run on one hit in the final 2.2 innings.
Union is back in action on Wednesday, April 25, when the Dutchmen face Vassar in a 4 p.m. Liberty League make-up game. The teams will play a single nine-inning game at Dutchess Stadium, home of the New York Penn League's Hudson Valley Renegades, in Wappingers Falls, NY.
