AMSTERDAM, N.Y. – The Union College baseball team had its late-game rally fall a few hits short as the Dutchmen dropped the third and final game of its weekend series with Clarkson University by a 7-4 score on a blustery and occasionally snowy Sunday afternoon at Shuttleworth Park.
 
Sophomore Kobe Mentzer and junior Jack Milone led Union (7-6, 2-1 Liberty League) with two hits apiece, while junior Jono Santos homered, drove in two runs and scored twice.  Kent Wilson almost single-handedly helped Clarkson (4-7, 1-2 Liberty League) to the win, going 3-for-5 with a homer, 5 RBIs and two runs scored.
 
Clarkson wasted no time getting on the board in the top of the first, as Caleb Doyle walked and came home when Wilson blooped a homer just to the right of the foul pole in left field. Wilson struck again in the second inning, clearing the bases with a two-out double that gave the visitors a 5-0 lead after two frames.
 
Wilson came up for his third at-bat with the bases loaded and one out in the fourth, but senior James Salemme – who came on in relief of junior Ben Mlavsky to start the inning – induced a 4-6-3 double play to get out of trouble. The senior battled through three innings of scoreless relief to keep the Dutchmen in the game before exiting after the sixth, allowing one hit and striking out two.
 
Union got one back in the bottom of the fifth, when junior Jono Santos led off by sending a ball over the left-field wall for his team-leading third homer of the season.
 
However, that was all the home team could get against Nicholas Hofacker until the ninth inning. Hofacker allowed one run on three hits and struck out eight through the first eight innings before Union attempted a comeback in the ninth. Santos drove in another run with a RBI groundout and Milone singled in a run to get the tying run to the plate with two outs, but a liner into the gap by sophomore Thomas Parisi was flagged down just before the wall to end the game.
 
Mlavsky (1-1) took the loss for Union, allowing five runs (two earned) on five hits in three innings. Salemme allowed one hit in three scoreless innings, followed by sophomore Bryce Fournier closing out the contest with three innings of two-run, three-hit ball.
 
The Dutchmen will return to action on Saturday at noon when the team starts a three-game series with Skidmore College by hosting the Thoroughbreds for two game at Shuttleworth Park.