Troy, NY - Down 6-1 through the first half of the contest, things looked bad for the Clarkson University Baseball team, but a five-run fifth and a three-run sixth put the Golden Knights ahead of Skidmore College for good as the Green and Gold moved on to the championship round of the Liberty League Tournament with a 9-7 victory over the Thoroughbreds at Robison Field.
The Golden Knights, who moved to 20-18 overall, are now 2-0 in the conference tournament for the first time ever, their sixth trip in seven seasons to the Liberty League Championships. The Knights were in the championship round in 2003, 2004, and 2006. Skidmore fell to 22-20 and will face Rensselaer Saturday afternoon. The winner of that game will face Clarkson in the championship round, starting at 11:00 am on Sunday. Clarkson needs to win just one of the two games on Sunday to advance to the NCAA Tournament.
Skidmore started the contest on the offensive as Mike Jaffe drove in two runs on a one-out, bases loaded single in the first inning. The Knights picked up a run in the bottom of the second inning as David Kinney (Mexico, NY) drove in Cale Giroux (Cortland, NY) with a two-out single to left. However, that would be all the offense Clarkson would get as Skidmore continued to pile on runs in the third, fourth, and fifth innings, taking a 6-1 lead through the middle of the fifth.
The Knights awoke from their offensive slumber in the bottom of the fifth. Kinney scored on an error by the Skidmore shortstop, and the Knights made the miscue a costly one as Austin Pitkin (Dexter, NY) doubled home a run and Brady Torbitt (Fulton, NY) followed with a two-run single to center. Matt Holiday (Syracuse, NY) then grounded out, plating Torbitt, who had moved up to third on a double from Jerry Coleman (Potsdam, NY), to tie the score 6-6.
In the bottom of the sixth inning, the Knights continued to score runs as the momentum clearly had turned in their favor. Matt Curry (Richland, NY) doubled home David Kinney, who led off the frame with a single, and then Curry came around on a two-run bomb to center field by Pitkin, giving Clarkson a 9-6 advantage. Though Skidmore tacked a run on to its total in the top of the ninth, reliever Vinnie Baldwin (Catskill, NY) closed out a fine performance by inducing a groundout to end the contest.
Baldwin pitched four impressive innings in relief of starter Rick Bittner (Lancaster, NY), who struck out five in five innings, allowing four earned runs. Baldwin scattered four hits in four innings, and got the Knights out of a jam in the sixth inning, retiring three straight batters after the Thoroughbreds led off the frame with back-to-back hits.
Clarkson pounded out 15 hits, as the one-through-five hitters each had multi-hit games. Kinney and Coleman each went 3-for-4. Pitkin, Torbitt, and Matt Giordano (Liverpool, NY) each went 2-for-5, as did Curry, who broke Clarkson's single-season hit record in the process with his 55th and 56th hits of the spring.
The win was Baldwin's first of the season, while Trevor Brucato took the loss for Skidmore, falling to 4-3.
