Potsdam, NY - Timely hitting and fundamentals propelled Skidmore College past the Clarkson University Baseball team in a doubleheader on Friday afternoon as the Golden Knights dropped a pair to the Thoroughbreds 7-4 and 6-4 at Snell Field.
The Golden Knights fell to 2-13 overall and 2-4 in the Liberty League while Skidmore eased over the .500 mark at 13-12 overall, but 7-3 in conference.
In the first game, Clarkson starter Darrell Carey (Dade City, FL) struggled out of the gate, allowing four runs in the opening frame as Skidmore found holes in the Clarkson infield defense. Rob Hutchison drove in a run on a ball right back at Carey and Matt Pisano doubled in two runs with a well-placed hit just out of the reach of Clarkson third baseman Brian Theilemann (Troy, NY). Jake Mendell also added a run scoring hit in the first to give Skidmore a 4-0 lead.
Clarkson tied the game over the course of the next four frames with a run in first, two in the third and one in the fourth. Senior TJ Brinkman (Troy, NY) tripled in a run on a ball that was just out of the reach of Skidmore second baseman Jake Mendell as the ball bounded on a line and nearly reached the outfield fence. Theilemann scored the first run on Brinkman's hit after singling with one out. The Knights scored two more in the third with back-to-back RBI-doubles from Mike Bresett (Norfolk, NY) and Brady Torbitt (Fulton, NY) to make the score 4-3. Matt Giordano (Liverpool, NY) tied the game up when he raced home on a sacrifice fly by Theilemann in the fourth.
With the score tied at 4-4, Skidmore rallied with two runs in the fifth inning. Hutchison again delivered a double to score Anthony Ferri and Pisani followed with a single to plate Hutchison. In the sixth, Skidmore scored on squeeze play, executed by Ferri to score Mike Jaffe.
In game two, most of the scoring came late in the game as neither team mustered much offense off the starting pitchers. Skidmore scored the first run in the second inning without the benefit of a hit, but the Knight scored twice in the bottom of the inning, both on wild pitches. Mendell tied the game for the Thoroughbreds when he drove in Spencer Marcus with a single in the fourth inning and the Thoroughbreds took the lead with a sacrifice fly after a failed pick off attempt sent Ferri from first base all the way to third. Another squeeze by Marcus drove in Hutchison in the eighth inning for Skidmore to make the score 4-2.
In the ninth inning it appeared as if Skidmore would win easily when both Ferri and Mike Salamone came home on a double from Greg Carlow, with Salamone chasing Ferri around the bases and nearly passing the freshman on their way to the plate. However Matt Holiday (Syracuse, NY) crushed a two-run homer in the bottom of the inning to cut the score to 6-4. With runners on first and second with one out, the Knights had a shot to tie the score, but freshman Ralph Rizzo bounced into a double play to end the contest.
Carlow, Hutchison and Pisani combined for six hits and five RBIs in the first game for Skidmore, but the threesome combined for only two hits in the second game. Theilemann and Torbitt each had two hits in the first game for Clarkson and Bresett and Ryan Glavin (Syracuse, NY) poked out two hits in the second game.
