POUGHKEEPSIE, N.Y. – Junior
Nico Lambros delivered the game-winning single in the bottom of the 10th inning to finish off the Union College baseball team's sweep of Vassar College in the Garnet Chargers' Liberty League opener on Friday afternoon at Prentiss Field.
Lambros had three hits and drove in two runs on the day for Union (13-6, 2-0 Liberty League), while classmate
Caleb Miller recorded a team-best four hits on the day. Senior
Dan Sheeran also had three hits and first-year
AJ Cutler and senior
Sam Strazza both joined Lambros with a pair of RBIs on the afternoon.
Game 1: Union 3, Vassar 2
Union managed only seven hits in the first game of the day, but three came in a decisive three-run fifth inning and senior
Chris Suter took care of the rest as the Garnet Chargers started the day with a 3-2 win.
Suter and Vassar starter Will Darrell matched zeroes on the scoreboard and combined for just five total hits over the first four innings, but Union broke through in the fifth. First-year
Dylan Swarts drove home the first run of the game with a single to plate Miller, who reached via a walk and went to third on a Lambros base hit. Cutler followed with the big blow, a two-run triple that scored Lambros and Swarts to put the visitors up 3-0 at the midway point.
Suter (5-0) allowed single runs in the sixth and seventh innings, but stranded two runners on base in the sixth to help keep Union ahead. He closed out the game with two strikeouts and a groundout in the ninth to finish off his second complete game of the season, striking out five and allowing eight hits over nine innings.
Darrell (1-2) took the loss for Vassar, allowing three runs on six hits over five frames.
Game 2: Union 6, Vassar 5 (10 inn.)
Lambros supplied both the first and last runs of the game for Union to end the day, singling home the winning run in the bottom of the 10th in a 6-5 win.
The teams traded sacrifice flies in the third inning, with Vassar (5-11, 0-5 Liberty League) taking a lead in the top of the frame only to be countered by Lambros' sac fly in the bottom half to even the score. Union came back with two in the bottom of the fourth, with Strazza scoring Cutler with a sacrifice fly of his own and senior
Kyle Zaslaw scoring on a designed double steal attempt.
Vassar got one back in the top of the fifth, but the Garnet Chargers responded with two more in the bottom half. Swarts started the rally with a one-out triple and came home on a two-out single by Strazza. A hit batter and a bases-loaded walk to sophomore
Noah DiCaprio increased the Union lead to three at 5-2.
The Brewers scored three times in the seventh to even the score and threatened again in the eighth, but a liner by Birch Herring-Jackson was snagged by Zaslaw and turned into an inning-ending double play.
Junior
Andrew Keaveney led off the 10th inning with a single and sophomore
Danny Talacci came on to pinch run. With two outs and Talacci on second, Lambros dropped a 1-1 pitch into center field and Talacci came around without a throw to win the game for the Garnet Chargers.
Swarts (1-0) pitched three innings of scoreless relief to earn his first collegiate win, allowing two hits and striking out three. Luke Barrientos (0-1) allowed the winning run in 1.2 innings of relief for the Brewers.
Union and Vassar will complete their three-game series tomorrow, when the Garnet Chargers return to Poughkeepsie to take on the Brewers beginning at noon.
