Utica, NY - The No. 4 Utica College baseball team dropped a heartbreaker Friday morning as it fell to top seeded Ithaca College, 9-4 in extra innings of the Empire 8 Conference Tournament. With the loss, Utica moves on to the fifth place game at the UC baseball field where it will take on Houghton College Friday afternoon (2 p.m.).
The Pioneers, who played arguably the toughest schedule in the tournament, led the Bombers for the majority of the game, before the flood gates opened in the top of the tenth. Utica jumped out to a 1-0 lead in the bottom of the first as
Brandon Thomas (West Winfield, NY/Mount Markham) ripped a single to right center, to score
Jake Ryan (Kingston, NY/Kingston).
The Bombers were finally able to solve Utica pitcher
Stephen Szatko (Sauquoit, NY/Sauquoit Valley) in the fourth inning as they mustered their first two hits of the game and went on to plate two runs. The Pioneers responded in the bottom half of the inning as
Daniel Priore (Utica, NY/T.R. Proctor) hit a two-RBI single to center, driving in
Bryce Patterson (Corning, NY/Corning East) and
Matthew DeMartino (Oceanside, NY/Oceanside).
Both teams traded runs in the fifth and six innings, before a fielder's choice in the eighth inning scored the tying run for the Bombers. Utica gave up four unearned runs in the top of the tenth as Ithaca all but sealed the victory.
Junior
Adam Pexton (Whitesboro, NY/Whitesboro) led UC at the plate as he went 2-for-4. Thomas, DeMartino, Patterson, Priore,
Benjamin Hobaica (Clinton, NY/Clinton), and
Thomas Dinnen (Cortlandt Manor, NY/Walter Panas ) each had one hit. Szatko struck out five and allowed just three earned runs in nine innings of work, while
Ryan Watson (Deerfield, NY/Whitesboro) and
James Richards (Rome, NY/Holland Patent) combined for two strikeouts.
Ithaca's Benji Parkes fanned four in 6.1 innings of work, while Jimmy Wagner struck out three in the final three innings to pick up his third win of the season. The Bombers improved to 19-14 on the season and move into the Championship game on Saturday at UC (10 a.m.) against the winner of the Stevens-St. John Fisher game.
