SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. – The Vermont State University Castleton baseball team fell short at Skidmore College Monday afternoon, 5-4.
Skidmore (10-7) claimed the victory in the bottom of the ninth with a walk-off sacrifice fly after the Spartans (2-18) had stormed back to tie the contest at 4-4 with runs in both the seventh and eighth innings.
The two teams went scoreless in the first inning before
Jared Maher opened the scoring with a solo home run in the second inning to give the Spartans a 1-0 lead.
Luke Russell kept the Spartans ahead through three innings, allowing only one hit to the Thoroughbreds in that span.
Skidmore was able to get to Russell with two runs in the fourth to give the hosts their first lead of the game, but Castleton responded with
Mikey Raby Jr. pushing home a run on a groundout to second, which allowed Maher to dash home and tie the game up at two apiece.
The Thoroughbreds capitalized on a throwing error by the Spartans to give them a two-run lead entering the seventh inning.
Turner Clews had an RBI groundout of his own to score
Brandon Ramirez and pull VTSU Castleton within one in the seventh, and
Jack Boyle sent a single through the left side of the infield, to score
Dylan Hedler and knot the score at 4-4 in the eighth inning.
Joseph Voli worked around a pair of errors in the bottom of the eighth to keep the score tied heading to the last. After Skidmore retired the Spartans 1-2-3 in the top half, the Thoroughbreds loaded the bases with just one out before the winning run came home on the sac fly.
Boyle and
Tyler McLain had two hits apiece with Maher scoring twice after recording a hit and a walk. Russell finished with four strikeouts and no walks on the day over four innings of work.
Michael Malloy tossed a scoreless inning of relief and
Nick Lescarbeau had three strikeouts over two innings of work.
The Spartans return to action on Tuesday, April 2 at 4 p.m. at Williams College. The game was originally scheduled for Wednesday, but has been moved up due to the impending forecast this week.
