SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. – The Union College baseball team scored eight runs over the final two innings of game one and put up a 12-spot in game two to deal Liberty League-leading Skidmore a pair of losses by the scores of 8-6 and 12-1 in conference action on Saturday afternoon at Castle Diamond.
 
The two wins keep Union (19-13, 6-3 Liberty League East) in a tie for second place in the East Division with Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, who the Garnet Chargers play next weekend in a three-game series to decide who will host a conference crossover series.
 
Junior Andrew Keaveney led the way for the Garnet Chargers on Saturday, going 5-for-10 with five runs batted in and two runs scored. Junior Caleb Miller homered twice, drove in two and scored five times in the two wins, and first-year Dylan Swarts drove in four runs and crossed the plate five times as well.
 
Game 1: Union 8, Skidmore 6
 
The Union bats were held in check for seven innings in the first game of the day, but the visitors exploded for eight runs over the final two frames and then held on in the bottom of the ninth to start the day with a win.
 
Keaveney and sophomore Noah DiCaprio had two RBIs each while Miller and Swarts scored twice each in the victory.
 
Union managed only two hits over the first seven innings, but the bats came alive just in time to pull out the win. Miller started the rally with a one-out homer in the eighth before a two-out rally allowed three more runs to score. A Swarts walk and a double by classmate AJ Cutler were followed by a Keaveney two-run double to put Union in front, and DiCaprio singled home Keaveney to double the lead. 
 
Swarts and Cutler added RBI base hits in the ninth and the visitors added two more on a Skidmore error and a bases-loaded walk to DiCaprio. Those runs proved to be vital after the Thoroughbreds scored four times in the bottom of the ninth, but senior Alex Erickson ended the game with a strikeout to finish off the win.
 
Sophomore Jacob Skarlis allowed one earned run in 6.2 innings but did not get a decision after junior Alex Oppenheimer (1-0) came on to get the final out of the seventh. Erickson pitched the final two innings to earn his fifth save of the year.
 
Game 2: Union 12, Skidmore 1
 
Union carried that momentum into a dominating game-two win, as the visitors scored in six of the seven frames and limited Skidmore to four hits in a 12-1 (7 inn.) mercy-rule victory.
 
Swarts produced both at the plate and on the hill for Union, going 2-for-4 with three RBIs and three runs scored as well as tossing four scoreless innings to earn the victory. Keaveney went 3-for-5 with three RBIs and senior Kyle Zaslaw and junior Nico Lambros drove in two runs each.
 
Miller set the tone for game two by homering on the second pitch of the game from former Garnet Charger Jack Collins. The visitors added another in the second on a wild pitch with the bases loaded, and Lambros doubled the lead with a two-run double in the third. Keaveney added two more with a single in the fourth to end Collins' day and put the visitors up by six.
 
After a scoreless fifth, Zaslaw plated two in the sixth before the Garnet Chargers ended the game early with a four-run seventh, punctuated by a Swarts three-run homer and a Keaveney RBI double.
 
Swarts (2-0) allowed only three hits in four scoreless innings to earn the win for the visitors, while junior Jack Klein allowed one run on one hit in three innings of work to earn his first save of the season.
 
Union will close out non-conference play on Wednesday with a 4 p.m. matchup at SUNY New Paltz before its pivotal three-game series against RPI next weekend.