It all began with dolphins.
The Red baseball team hopes it won’t end with those very same dolphins. After last week’s win against the LeMoyne Dolphins (19-13, 12-0 MAAC), the Red has won four of its last six, including three out of four against Ivy-rival Penn this past weekend.
Yet the same Dolphins came to Ithaca yesterday and split a pair of seven-inning games with the Red, winning the second game, 4-0.
Freshman Trevor Vieweg suffered the loss, falling to 1-1 on the season, after giving up three earned runs on five hits in 2 2/3 innings of work.
The combination of senior Sam Sinkavich and sophomore Michael Hudson relieved Vieweg, and pitched 4 1/3 innings without allowing a run, nor a hit, with Sinkavich striking out five.
Yet the Red could not rally back from the early 4-0 lead as its lineup managed just four hits and two walks in the game.
Ithaca High alum, Chris Bilyk, started for LeMoyne and did not allow a runner past first base in his four innings of work to earn his first win of the year.
Junior Matt Miller and freshman Kaleb Hutchinson were each 1-for-3 in the game, while sophomore Garrett Wasson and senior Ned VanAllan were each 1-for-2.
VanAllan led the charge in the first game of the doubleheader, which the Red won, 4-2, as he went 2-for-3 with a run scored. The run, which was the first in a four-run second inning for the Red, was a result of a VanAllan double and then junior Conor Kelly’s RBI single.
Senior co-captain Dan Parant, who moved to third on the Kelly single, came around to score on classmate David Bredhoff’s sacrifice bunt. Bredhoff’s bunt was followed by another bunt, this one a squeeze bunt, by sophomore Seth Gordon to score Kelly, which proved to be the winning run.
The last run of the inning came on an RBI single from Miller to score Bredhoff who reached on an error, to give the Red an early 4-0 lead.
The Dolphins put two runs on the board in the top of the fourth inning on Jeff Justice’s two-run homerun.
Yet it wasn’t enough as the combination of junior Matthew Light and Kelly shut the door on the LeMoyne offense. Light pitched two innings of scoreless relief, allowing only one hit and one walk, while striking out two Dolphin hitters.
Kelly earned his second save of the season after an inning of work in which he gave up just one hit.
The Red, which is now 9-23 on the season and 4-8 in the Ivy League, will be back in action this weekend as it plays host to Gehrig division foe, Columbia (9-21, 6-10 Ivy).
Archived article by Christopher Mascaro
Sun Assistant Sports Editor