Saints Take Three of Four at Union

April 26: St. Lawrence University's baseball team kept its Liberty League playoff hopes alive with a double header split at Union Sunday, dropping game one 4-1, but bouncing back with a 7-6 win in game two.

The Saints, 16-15 overall and 9-11 in league play are currently fifth in the Liberty League and need a big weekend against arch-rival Clarkson in the final weekend of the regular season to leapfrog the Knights and grab the fourth seed in the Liberty League tournament. The Saints and Knights will play in Canton on Saturday and in Potsdam at Sunday with both doubleheaders starting at 12. SLU will play at Ithaca in a non-league game on Tuesday in the final week of the regular season.

Union's Josh McKelliga threw a four hitter in the first game, striking out three and Pat Wilson had a homer among three hits. Union jumped out to a 4-0 lead against the Saints, who were the home team in the Sunday series, and went on to hand Chris Cook his first loss after three straight wins. The Saints scored their lone run in the bottom of the fourth as Tim Harris hit his third homer of the season.

Union took a 6-5 lead in the top of the eighth in game two, but the Saints came back to win it in the bottom of the night. Bryan Brennan started the winning rally with a single and went to second on an error. Sam Kelly then dropped a bunt single to move Brennan to third and Ryan Duff singled to score Brennan, tying the game. Harris then doubled home Kelly for the game-winning run.

Union went up 3-0 in the top of the third, but the Saints came right back with two in the bottom of the inning as Duff singled home one run and scored on Kirt Broedel's ground out after Harris had singled to move Duff to third.

The Saints tied it in the bottom of the fifth as Kelly walked, moved to second on a ground out, to third on a fly ball and scored on a passed ball. SLU tacked on two more in the bottom of the sixth with two walks, an error and Kelly's run-scoring single.

Matt Landers earned his second win of the season with five strikeouts and one hit allowed in one and two thirds innings of scoreless relief. Zach Slater started the game for the Saints.

 

 

SAINTS TAKE TWO BY 4-2 SCORES AT UNION

 

April 25: Steve Bodnar pitched a two-hitter, striking out ten in game one of a Liberty League doubleheader at Union on Saturday, leading the Saints to a 4-2 victory. The Saints rallied from a 2-1 deficit with three runs in the top of the eighth for another 4-2 win in game two.

Tim Harris ran his hitting streak to 12 games in game one, but had the streak snapped in the second game. Ryan Duff and Robert Carman had two hits each and Kirk Shimkin delivered a two-out two-run single in the eighth in game two as the Saints improved to 15-14 overall and 8-10 in league play going into a Sunday twinbill against the Dutchmen.

Freshman shortstop Bryan Brennan added two hits in game one as the Saints battled from behind for the win. Union scored on a hit batter, steal, single and ground out in the bottom of the first for the lone earned run against Bodnar, but the Saints came right back with two in the top of the second to take the lead.

Harris led off with a single and went to second on Garrett Fitzgerald's single. Robert Carman then hit a ground ball to first that forced Fitzgerald at second, but Harris came all the way from second to score on the play. Back-to-back two-out singles by Taylor Engle and Chris Donaldson brought home Carman with the go-ahead run.

The Saints added a run in the top of the third as Ryan Duff walked, went to second on Harris' single, to third on a passed ball and scored on Kirk Broedel's sacrifice fly. Union cut it to 3-2 with an unearned run in the bottom of the third, but Bodnar did not allow a hit the rest of the way and walked only one for his third win of the year against one loss. The Saints tacked on an insurance run in the top of the fifth as Harris singled home Brennan with two outs for a 4-2 lead.

 

Sean Voss pitched the win in game two, allowing one earned run in seven innings and Matt Landers pitched two innings of scoreless relief, striking out three, for his second save of the season.

The Saints took a 1-0 lead in the top of the first as Brennan led off with a double, but was injured sliding into second. Engle pinch ran for Brennan and scored on a passed ball after advancing to third on a ground out.

Union tied it with a run in the bottom of the third and went ahead with an unearned run in the bottom of the seventh, but the Saints rallied in the eighth. Ryan Fedo led off with a single and Chris Donaldson doubled to put runners on second and third. Engle and Sam Kelly drew back-to-back walks to force in the tying run and with two out, Shimkin came through with his two-run single to provide the winning runs.