The Red Hawks’ bats were unstoppable this weekend, driving in 53 runs to win the team’s first four conference games. Leading the way were Travis Teeter, who was 12 for 20 on the weekend with double-digit run production, and Brian Marine, who lit up St. Lawrence on Saturday with a home run in each game, including a grand slam in game two.
"The bats came out today," said Head Coach Karl Steffen, and the timing was fortuitous because "[Clarkson’s] a good team; they’re legit."
Clarkson took early leads in each of the two games on Friday, but the Red Hawks’ offense quickly kicked into high gear.
Teeter was on the hill for Rensselaer in game one, and the Golden Knights lit him up for 4 runs in the first two innings. But in the bottom of the second, he helped himself out, driving in 2 runs and later scoring to tie the game. Later, a Ben Noonan home run capped off the 6-run inning.
Clarkson narrowed the gap to 7-5 in the third, but Teeter had the offensive answer once again, putting a 2-run shot over the right field fence. That put the game out of reach, and the Red Hawks won by a final score of 10-8.
David Hubbs pitched for RPI in the second game, and Clarkson was able to score some runs off of him as well, notching a pair of 2-run homers in the first four innings. However, the Red Hawks picked up 5 runs in the first, punctuated by a home run by Tim Egan, and held a 5-4 lead going into the fifth.
A bunt single followed by a walk chased Hubbs in favor of Justin Pappas, and another hard-hit single by Clarkson’s Matt Macaulay loaded the bases with no outs. Pappas struck out the next batter and induced the Golden Knights’ Brooks McMurry to hit a hard ground ball at Rensselaer shortstop Brendan Witherell.
Witherell flipped the ball to Egan at second base, but Macaulay’s slide took Egan out before he could throw to first. The umpires made a controversial ruling that Macaulay had slid past the second base bag, violating the NCAA’s force-play slide rule, and called McMurry out for interference, ending the inning with no runs scoring.
Rule 8-4-c of the 2001 NCAA Baseball Rules states: "Actions by a runner are illegal and interference shall be called if … [the] runner goes beyond the base and either makes contact with or alters the play of the fielder."
Clarkson scored no further runs during the game, and the Red Hawks won by a score of 8-4.
After the game, Jim Kane, head coach of the Clarkson team, commented on the interference call.
"I thought it was a good, hard, clean slide," said Kane. "It was definitely a momentum-breaker." He declined to blame his team’s loss on the call, though. "We didn’t play fundamentally sound baseball … we spotted them seven runs."
For Rensselaer, Steffen said he thought the umpires had made the right call, applying the rule correctly.
To questions about the day’s pitching performances, Steffen replied, "Sometimes you don’t have your best stuff," but both Hubbs and Teeter pitched well enough to keep the Red Hawks in the games.
A larger disappointment for Steffen was the number of runners (three) that were picked off. "If we’re not stealing, we should never get picked off."
Overall, though, Steffen was pleased to have taken two games against "one of the teams that’s going to be in the hunt."
A struggling St. Lawrence team was RPI’s next opponent, and the Red Hawks completely dominated both games on Saturday, winning by scores of 16-0 and 19-5.
Pat Hughes started game one for Rensselaer, giving up only four hits and striking out four in his five innings of work. Bob Cutting came on in the sixth and pitched two perfect innings to finish out the match.
Once again, though, the big story was the offense, which scored in every inning. The Red Hawks picked up 19 hits in routing the Saints, including six doubles, a triple, and home runs by Marine and Witherell.
Game two looked as if it was going to be closer, with the Saints picking up a couple of runs in the first off of Rensselaer’s fourth starter, Freshman Max Miller.
The Red Hawks were having none of it, though, thundering back with 6 runs in their half of the inning, including Marine’s grand slam, and never looking back.
Cutting allowed a total of 4 runs in picking up the win, striking out seven St. Lawrence batters. Aaron Seibert pitched the sixth inning, letting only one runner—who reached on a catcher’s interference call—cross the plate, and closer Ed Haldeman pitched a scoreless seventh.
Meanwhile, RPI’s potent offense and St. Lawrence’s porous defense—twelve errors in the two games—combined for 13 more Red Hawk runs, completing a weekend sweep of Rensselaer’s North Country rivals.
The Red Hawks are in the middle of an eight-day stretch in which they will play 10 of their 12 conference games, with two games at Vassar on Tuesday and two more home doubleheaders against Union and Skidmore this coming weekend.
"This is a big time for us," said Steffen. "Conceivably we could lock up the league this week."
