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Ithaca rally in 9th continues long win streak against Saints

Posted 5/3/12

Sophomore third baseman Colby Gee delivered a two-out bases loaded single to short right field to drive in two runs in the top of the ninth, lifting Ithaca College to its 25th straight win over St. …

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Ithaca rally in 9th continues long win streak against Saints

Posted

Sophomore third baseman Colby Gee delivered a two-out bases loaded single to short right field to drive in two runs in the top of the ninth, lifting Ithaca College to its 25th straight win over St. Lawrence University in an NCAA Division III baseball game at Tom Fay Field Wednesday afternoon.

The Saints, who have won only once in 39 games against the Bombers since 1988, were on the verge of snapping the long losing streak after Taylor Engle's second home run of the day put the Saints in front 9-8 in the bottom of the seventh, but Ithaca rallied against senior Kyle Donaldson in the ninth with a pair of unearned runs and senior Tucker Healy struck out all four batters he faced after coming on with two out in the bottom of the eighth to pick up the victory.

Ithaca improves to 23-8-1 on the season while the Saints will take a 23-11 mark into a four-game series against arch rival Clarkson to end the regular season Saturday and Sunday. The Saints play two at Clarkson on Sunday with a doubleheader rematch on Tom Fay Field Sunday afternoon.

Gee went three for six and Andrew Turner was three for five as Ithaca had 17 hits against four Saint pitchers. Engle was three for five with his two homers and three runs driven in and Jeff Kott homered and was two for five, also driving in three for the Saints.

Ithaca jumped out to a 1-0 lead on Saint starter Chris Kellogg with a run in the top of the first as Mike Rosenbaum doubled and scored on Teagen Barresi's two out single. The Saints tied it on Kott's leadoff homer in the bottom of the second, but the Bombers tacked on five in the third, four of them unearned, getting five hits and taking advantage of two Saint errors.

The Saints rallied in the bottom of the fifth, scoring six times to take a 7-6 lead. Engle led off with a homer to left, and the Saints strung eight straight hits with one out to pile up the runs. Kott hit a two run single and Paul Piatelli and Matt DeLuca hit run-scoring doubles in the big inning.

The Bombers came back to take a 8-7 lead with two in the top of the seventh off Andrew Weitzel as Rosenbaum and Matt Keller hit back-to-back run-scoring doubles with two out, but the Saints came right back to retake the lead in the bottom of the inning when DeLuca reached on an error and Engle launched his second homer of the game over the left field fence to make it a 9-8 game.

Donaldson shut down Ithaca in eighth, but Corey Caswell started the winning rally with an infield hit. Pinch runner Christian Brown was thrown out trying to steal for the first out of the inning, but Tim LoCastro singled to left and stole second. A walk put runners on first and second and Keller hit a hard shot to third with the Saints getting a force out at third, but Ithaca staying alive when the throw for the attempted double play to end the game got away at first. Barresi then walked to load the bases before Gee delivered the eventual game-winning hit.