Davenport, FL - Led by a dominant pitching display from CJ Kanick on the bump, the Clarkson University Baseball team shutout Farmingdale State, 10-0 in seven innings, Friday evening at the Northeast Regional Park in Central Florida.
Clarkson improves to 5-3 overall following the win and will travel to Winter Haven, Florida on Saturday to take on Wisconsin River-Falls at 7:30 p.m. Farmingdale drops to 1-2 overall.
Beau Vardion got the Knights on the board early in the top half of the first, ripping a single to left to bring Seth Albert around from third who just managed to slide underneath the tag at the plate. CJ Kanick would work through the Farmingdale State lineup 1-2-3 in the bottom of the frame, bringing the bats back up to the plate to tack on three more runs in the second. Jackson Waters led off with a single down the left line before Zach Rider would blast out his first career home run one at bat later to make it 3-0. With two down, Albert would then reach on a fielding error by the shortstop and advance to third courtesy of a single by Joe Figliolino, the 100th of his Clarkson career. An infield single from Vardion plated Albert from third to push the advantage to 4-0.
Threatening to add more insurance in the third, Farmingdale's TJ Cox managed to get three straight outs despite runners on second and third to keep the deficit limited to four. Clarkson found that breakthrough in the top of the fourth, as Vardion would cap off three-straight hits with a double for his third RBI of the game, while a wild pitch in the next at-bat allowed Figliolino to score and make it 6-0.
In the top of the seventh, John Swartz would walk to leadoff and then steal second to move into scoring position with one out. Kyle Ventola then smashed a double over the glove of the left fielder to score Swartz and make it 7-0. A Rider single then put Knights at first and second until Aidan Kuefner unloaded a three-run bomb over the left field fence to make it 10-0. Kanick would return to the mound for the bottom of the seventh, looking to complete the game by himself and proceed to get three straight outs, including two strikeouts to end the game in seven innings via run-rule.
Kanick would finish his seven inning performance with 13 strikeouts while giving up just one hit and one free pass. The 13 strikeouts are the most from a Clarkson pitcher since March 26th, 2022. Derek Watts would be handed the loss for the Rams giving up three runs and three hits in one and two-thirds innings of work.
Eight different batters recorded at least one hit for the Knights with three finishing with two and Vardion leading with three. Vardion and Kuefner also drove in three runs apiece to pace Clarkson.
