The Red Hawks’ hitters, spurred on by Shuket’s effort, plated five more runs by the end of the third inning in an ugly mess of nine hits, three wild pitches, two balks, and an error to lead New Paltz 9-2.
As the game wore on, the pitching on both sides rapidly fell apart; New Paltz and RPI pounded out a combined 25 runs in the final four and a half innings of play. When the dust settled, the Red Hawks had won the game 20-12. Brian Rickert was the winning pitcher for RPI, and Marc Bernstein had the loss for New Paltz.
The Red Hawks returned home on Thursday to play a doubleheader against the Vassar Brewers at Robison Field.
The Red Hawks grabbed the lead early in the first game of the pair, scoring two runs with singles by Quinn and Hughes and a loud double to center field by Meron. RPI added another run in the second inning, but sputtered in the third frame when pitcher Max Miller gave up four runs on three doubles and two singles to hand Vassar the lead.
Undaunted, the Red Hawks clawed back in the fifth and six innings to tie the game at five all and force extra frames.
With two runners on in the ninth inning, shortstop Adam Najemy made a costly throwing error, and Farone scored to give the Red Hawks the 6-5 victory. McGough had the win for RPI, and Dave DeSario took the loss for the Brewers.
The opening stretch of the second game was close like the first game, and the Red Hawks held just a 5-3 lead by the third inning of play. However, the RPI batters found their groove as the game progressed, plating 11 more runs in just three innings. Hughes was again the MVP for the Red Hawks with four RBI, three hits, and three runs scored.
On Saturday, the Red Hawks played a doubleheader against the Rochester Yellowjackets. The first game of the twin billing was one of the most exciting baseball games I’ve ever seen played.
RPI starter Aaron Seibert sailed through the first five innings of play, surrendering only four hits to the Yellowjackets. Seibert had commanding a 2-0 lead by the sixth frame on the strength of doubles by third baseman Joe Ihnatolya and left fielder Pat Hughes, and it appeared that was all the offensive support he would need.
However, Seibert started to tire in the sixth inning and threw a pitch over the middle of the plate that Rochester third baseman R.J. Johnsen hit out for a home run to give the Yellowjackets a 3-2 lead. After Rochester added a tack-on run in the top of the seventh inning, the Red Hawks faced a daunting task in the seventh: score two runs off stingy Yellowjacket reliever Joe Ullman.
With two men out, two strikes on the count, and the bases loaded, Shuket sailed a soft single in the outfield to score Hughes and left fielder Ryan Meron and tie the score at four runs apiece, sending the game into extra innings.
In the ninth inning, RPI again faced defeat, after the Yellowjackets scored a run in the top of the inning to lead 6-5. As if on cue, the Red Hawks’ hitters again answered the bell in the bottom half of the frame, scoring two walk-off runs on a hit, two errors, and two wild pitches. With their second comeback in three innings, the Red Hawks won the game 6-5. Reliever Ryan McGough had the win for RPI, and Yellowjacket relief pitcher Michael Zollweg took the loss.
Apparently deflated by their wrenching loss in game one, the Yellowjackets never really showed up for game two. The Red Hawks knocked off 21 runs against the exhausted Rochester pitching to win the game in a blowout by a score of 21-5. Shuket was the MVP of the game with a home run, three hits, two runs scored, and seven RBI. Brian Rickert had the win for RPI, and Davis took the loss for Rochester.
The Red Hawks did not have a long time to celebrate the victory, though, as the team traveled to Ithaca to take on the Bombers on Sunday afternoon.
The Bombers got off to a quick start in game one, scoring three quick runs off Red Hawk starting pitcher Charles Yarnold. Ithaca added 10 more runs in the latter five innings of play, and won the game by a score of 13-9 to snap the Red Hawk winning streak at 10.
In the second game of the doubleheader, the Red Hawks rebounded from their game one loss with solid pitching by starter Erik Thunell and six runs of offensive support to win the game 6-3. Faraone was the MVP of the game for RPI, with two hits and two RBI.
On Monday, the Red Hawks took on the 22-8 SUNY-Cortland Red Dragons, who were ranked sixth nationally in the last American Baseball Coach’s Association poll. The game started out as a classic pitchers’ duel. After five innings of play, the Red Hawks clung to a slim 1-0 lead, scoring in the second inning on a double by designated hitter Brian Marine and an error by Red Dragon shortstop Chris Haggetty.
In the sixth inning, Red Hawk starter Brian Brzek, who had pitched the first five innings brilliantly, starting running out of gas, and the Red Dragons seized their chance to mount a comeback; Cortland scored five runs on four base hits to lead 5-1. The Red Dragons added four more runs in the seventh and eighth innings and won the game 9-1. Brzek had his second loss of the year, and Red Dragon starter Tobby Youngs had the win.
With seven wins in their last nine games, the Red Hawks are now 19-9. All five of the Red Hawks’ games in the next seven days are at home. On Thursday, RPI takes on the Trailblazers of the Massachusetts College of Liberal Arts—first pitch is at 4 pm. Then on Saturday and Sunday, the Red Hawks play two UCAA doubleheaders against archrivals Clarkson and St. Lawrence to close out their conference schedule for the year. The doubleheader against Clarkson starts at 1 pm, and the games against St. Lawrence game begin at 2 pm.
