SCHENECTADY, N.Y. – The Union College baseball team claimed their second consecutive Liberty League regular season title after splitting their double header with RIT on Sunday afternoon at Central Park C Diamond. After losing game one 2-1, the Dutchmen stormed back on senior day to win 14-3 in game two.
With the win, the Dutchmen improve to 22-9-1 and a league best 14-6-1 (.690). RIT fell to 17-15 and 12-10 in league play. Union will now play host to the 2014 Liberty League playoffs that will begin this week.
Before the double header action the six Dutchmen seniors were honored in a pregame ceremony. Pitchers
Andrew Beaule and
Dane O'Neil joined outfielders Vince Esposito, Sammy Caruso and infielders
Joe Bradlee and
David Peretti in accepting a framed jersey from head coach
Paul Mound.
In game one, the Tigers got out to the early lead in the bottom of the first when Skip Flanagan reached on a fielder's choice that scored Chris Barr. The Dutchmen responded right away in the top of the second when Bradlee grounded out to Zach Zabel to allow sophomore designated hitter
Eric Egan to score. RIT would score the final and winning run of the game in the bottom of the fifth when Barr tripled to left center to allow CJ Bolorin to score.
Freshman pitcher
Greg Geisel was impressive in his six inning of work. He allowed only two earned runs while striking out five and walking three but fell to 0-2 on the season. Ethan Humbert picked up his second win of the season after pitching a complete game and allowing only one run with none earned. He walked only two batters while striking out six in seven innings of work.
In game two the Dutchmen started strong in the top of the first inning and never looked back. Freshman outfielder
Kent Curran knocked home the first run on a double to left center that allowed Peretti to score. Neither team was able to find a run until the fifth inning when the Dutchmen extended their lead to 5-0 thanks to RBIs by Peretti, Curran and freshman infielder
Jake Fishman.
Union would go on to tack on nine runs over the sixth and seventh innings to take a commanding 14-0 lead. RIT was only able to scratch across three runs that came in the bottom of the eighth innings thanks to RBIs by Will Gorman and Taylor Hogan.
Beaule pitched a gem of a game in his final regular season collegiate start. He pitched seven scoreless innings before allowing three earned runs as he tired in the eighth. He struck out four and only walked one to improve to 4-1 on the season. Tyler Leichtenberger fell to 3-3 on the season after allowing seven runs, three of the earned, and ten hits to the Dutchmen in 5.1 innings. Brian Sheridan, Conor Herlihy, Tom Dillon and Rich Sammon also saw relief action.
Curran led the Dutchmen offense by going 4-4 with four RBIs in game two. Fishman and Egan also had big days after collecting three RBIs a piece in game number two. Other to collect hits on the day included junior infielder
Anders Goetz, Esposito, Caruso, Peretti, Bradlee and junior infielder C.J. Worley.
The Dutchmen now await the Liberty League playoffs. Announcements for the league tournament will be made tomorrow.
