April 7, 2004

Baseball Is Swept

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There was plenty of good news for the baseball team to begin the week. Sophomore Rocky Collis earned this week’s Tompkins Trust Company/Cornell Varsity Athlete of the Week after his complete-game win over Harvard last weekend, and the squad’s doubleheader — which was scheduled to be played at Binghamton — was moved to Cornell because the playing conditions were deemed better at Hoy Field.

Then came the bad news for the Red.

The Bearcats (8-8) swept the Red in yesterday’s doubleheader by scores of 13-5 and 11-3, respectively.

In the first game, the Red scored four of its five runs by the fourth inning as it opened up an early 4-2 lead. Senior co-captain Dan Parant lit the fire for the Red offensively as he scored both times he was on base. Parant was driven in on freshman Kaleb Hutchinson’s sacrifice fly and then again on a single from junior Matt Miller.

Senior Dan Gala started the game and pitched four solid innings, giving up three hits and two runs, neither earned, with four strikeouts.

Yet the wheels soon fell off for the Red as the Bearcats hammered in four runs in the fifth off freshman Blake Hamilton, who picked up the loss.

Things only got worse for the Red as Binghamton blew the game open in the seventh inning, scoring seven runs to seal the win.

The Red offense sputtered out after the strong start as well. The Red went hitless until sophomore Matt Goodson drove a pitch out of the ballpark to make the score 13-5, the eventual final score.

“I think we just need to string more hits together and produce more runs,” Parant said.

The offense didn’t get those hits in the second game as the team managed just three runs on four hits in an 11-3 loss.

Again the Red opened up an early lead as it capitalized on two Binghamton errors in the third and tacked on its third run in the fourth on a two-out single by sophomore Michael Weiss.

Weiss led the way for the Red on offense, going 2-2 with an RBI and a run scored.

Yet, the real issue for the Red was its relief pitching.

Senior Luke Staskal started for the Red, going four innings and giving up just one hit while striking out three Bearcat hitters. Yet, because Staskal is projected to start again at Yale over this coming weekend, head coach Tom Ford went to his bullpen.

“He was pitching real well,” Parant said. “I think it was just a case of saving him for Saturday.”

When Staskal exited the game, the Red was up by three runs. However, the Bearcats rallied for nine runs on seven hits off of senior Sam Sinkavich, who took the loss for the Red, and freshman Trevor Vieweg who replaced Sinkavich after he retired only one batter.

The Red offense failed to mount a comeback, and after Binghamton tacked on two more runs in the sixth, the game was called on account of darkness.

With the two losses, the Red dropped to 4-15 on the season. Fortunately, going into a weekend against Ivy foes Yale and Dartmouth, the Red finds itself in the middle of the Ivy pack with a 1-1 record in conference.

Archived article by Chris Mascaro
Sun Assistant Sports Editor