April showers ruined most of the weekend for the Rensselaer baseball team, but that did not prevent them from being productive when they did take the field. Rensselaer crushed Massachusetts College of Liberal Arts in a non-league contest on Wednesday, and then won a dramatic extra-inning battle against Union on Saturday, 6-5.
“It was a good win for us,” Head Coach Karl Steffen stated bluntly. “We hate to give up the five runs, but we showed a lot of character.”
Sophomore Dan Valentine’s one-out, walk-off single sealed the deal for Rensselaer, scoring freshman Bob Murphy for the winning run. Valentine drilled a delivery from sophomore Dutchman reliever Kevin McCormick over the left fielder’s head in the home half of the eighth frame. Murphy was pinch-running for junior Ken Carroll, who hit a leadoff double, and scored from second easily.
Senior Charlie Yarnold (4-1, 1.15 ERA) pitched three scoreless innings to pick up the win.
“He had some big strikeouts, and pitched out of some big jams,” Steffen said. He also acknowledged that the win was a “total team effort.” Nice plays were made by the defense to keep RPI in the ballgame, including a nice catch by freshman center fielder Sean Wilkes back near the wall.
Yarnold came into the game in the sixth to relieve sophomore Tim Klein (1-2, 3.27 ERA). Klein had a no-hitter going into that inning, but allowed five straight hits, including a two-run home run to begin the sixth.
“[Tim] made bad decisions with pitch locations.” Steffen added that “he threw it right into their strengths, and he paid for it.”
Klein allowed four runs in the sixth, all earned, to knot the game at five. He did allow one unearned run in the third inning, even though the Dutchmen failed to get a hit. Klein struck out the leadoff man, but he reached on a pass ball. A walk, wild pitch, and sacrifice groundout later, Union got on the board.
Klein got a big strikeout and then another groundout to pitch out of the jam. “He showed us he could pitch through troubled times,” Steffen said.
RPI got on the board early with three runs in the first, including a two-run single by senior Joe Ihnatolya.
Junior Jason Pollard got hit by two more pitches, upping his total to 22 for the season. He is third in the nation in that category, but first in hit-by-pitches per game.
Steffen said that a few year ago there was a player on his team that sometimes “tried to get hit by pitches,” but he has stated many times that Pollard doesn’t do that and he’s “just getting hit.”
“He’s a tough kid,” Steffen admits. “I guess he’s used to it being a catcher and getting hit behind the plate all the time.”
Last Wednesday, Rensselaer traveled to North Adams to take on the Massachusettes College of Liberal Arts. The Red Hawks jumped out to an 11-0 lead after three innings and never looked back, winning handily, 18-5.
Ihnatolya had a career day for Rensselaer, tying a club record with five hits, including a home run, his second of the season. Over the two games the senior captain hit .667, drove in five runs and crossed the plate four times himself. He was given the nod for Performer of the Week by the Liberty League.
Union (7-17, 6-11) and Rensselaer (20-8, 9-4) will play three times this week to make up the rainouts. Union will host a twinbill on Wednesday, and there will be one game here in Troy on Wednesday. Then there will be a home-and-home series of doubleheaders this weekend against Skidmore (14-13, 5-7).
Steffen thinks that his team is ready for seven games in five days: “I think our pitching staff is deep enough.” The veteran coach said that fatigue shouldn’t be a problem because of the added “motivation of playing league games.”
