CASTLETON, Vt. – The Vermont State University Castleton baseball team swept Little East Conference opponent Western Connecticut St. Saturday afternoon.
GAME 1: VTSU Castleton 4, West Conn. 0
Aubrey Ramey took the mound and was lights out. Ramey pitched a complete game, shutting out the Wolves and generating the spark the Spartans were looking for entering today's contest. He faced 35 batters and provided four strikeouts, seven hits, and one walk on 105 pitches to earn his first win of the season.
On the offensive side, Jack Boyle crushed a ball on the second pitch the Wolves tossed and sent it over the fence to give the Spartans an early lead. Boyle has now homered in back-to-back games for the first time in his career and leads the team with four this season.
Castleton rode the momentum from Boyle's homerun with hits from Hunter Perkins and Jackson Cardozo to get into scoring position. Tyler McLain provided the sacrifice fly to send Perkins home and give Castleton a 2-0 lead after the first inning.
With an error coming from the Wolves in the fourth inning, Castleton's Alex Bingham was able to dash around the diamond and make it home to extend their lead to three. Bingham would go on to collect an RBI single later in the game to give Castleton their final score of the game and secure the victory in game 1.
GAME 2: VTSU Castleton 10, West Conn. 9
VTSU Castleton carried the energy from game 1 over to game 2, as the Spartans took a 2-0 lead in the first inning with a double from Brandon Ramirez that sent Boyle home. Kannon Dush made his presence known by stealing third base, setting him up to be sent home with a single RBI by Perkins to extend Castleton's lead. With runners on the corners, Perkins distracted the Wolves' pitcher by attempting to steal second. Reacting to the play, Boyle dashed down the third base line and stole home to give Castleton a 4-0 lead.
Luke Russell took the mound in game 2 and was solid for the Spartans. He saw 5.2 innings of action with one strikeout, three walks, and five hits on 100 pitches to pick up the win.
The Wolves earned their first runs of the day in the fourth inning with three runs on three hits to trail only by one. Castleton responded with a big fourth inning of their own. With bases loaded, Perkins provided a sacrifice flyout to advance the runners a base and extend their lead to five. Ramirez sent a single to right field to bring in two more runners home. He also allowed Cardozo to sneak home from third base with an attempted steal to second that wrapped up the four-run inning at 8-3.
West Conn wasn't out of it yet as they scored four times in the sixth inning to trail 8-7.
The two teams battled it out in the final innings, with Castleton grabbing a run off a double from Mikey Raby Jr. to give Castleton their ninth run of the game. West Conn capitalized off an error to get back within one from the Spartans. The Spartans responded with Dush blasting a ball toward right field and using his speed to round the bases and make it to third. He would go on to make it home after another sacrifice fly out from Perkins to give the Spartans a two-run lead.
At the top of the ninth, Sam Crawford entered the game looking to seal the deal for the Spartans. The Wolves collected two hits on Crawford and were able to score to only trail by one. With one out remaining, Crawford put away the final batter to secure the save and the sweep for the Spartans on senior day.
The Spartans return to action Sunday, April 21 against Plymouth St. for doubleheader action with game 1 beginning at 1 p.m.
