CORTLAND, N.Y. – The Ithaca College baseball team opened the Cortland Regional with an 11-2 victory over Eastern Connecticut State University at Cortland's Wallace Field on Friday afternoon. The Bombers are now 29-14 on the season and will play SUNY Cortland on Saturday at 12 p.m. for a trip to the regional final.
It was a quick start to the game as Kyle Lambert retired the Warriors in the top of the first on a pair of groundouts and a strikeout. The Bombers put a runner on in the bottom half when Louis Fabbo reached on a one-out single to center, but Ithaca was unable to score after Garrett Callaghan and Matt Fabian sent fly outs to the warning track.
Eastern Connecticut then took a 1-0 lead in the top of the second inning on a two-out solo home run to right by Alejandro Soriano.
In the bottom of the second, Colin Shashaty led off for the Bombers with a single to left and then stole second and third. Riley Brawdy followed up with a one-out RBI single to knot the game at 1-1. Gil Merod then reached on an infield single, and Collin Feeney drew a walk to load the bases with two outs. Fabbo put the Bombers up, 3-1, with a single to right; Brawdy and Merod scored and then Feeney made it 4-1, scoring on a wild pitch.
Ithaca extended its lead to 5-1 in the bottom of the third by stringing together three straight two-out hits. Mike Nauta started the rally with a bunt single and then Brawdy ripped a base hit to right-center to set up runners on the corners. Merod stepped to the plate next a delivered an RBI single to left, allowing Nauta to score.
Ithaca knocked Dan Driscoll out of the game early in the fourth inning when Feeney led off with a single and Fabbo followed with a walk. Callaghan forced the pitching change after an RBI single through the right side of the infield to make the game 6-1. Fabian extended the lead to 7-1 with a double down the right field line on the first at bat after the pitching change, and then Shashaty brought in Callaghan with a sacrifice bunt for an 8-1 advantage.
In the top of the fifth inning, Lambert notched his third strikeout of the game to give him 96 on the season, matching his own single season school record that was set last year. Lambert pitched into the eighth inning, logging 7.1 innings with nine hits allowed and two earned runs.
Ithaca reached double digits in runs in the bottom of the sixth on a two-run single to center from Brawdy that plated Callaghan and Fabian to give the Bombers a 10-1 lead.
Eastern Connecticut ended Ithaca's 10-run stretch with a groundout to second base in the top of the seventh, but the Bombers got that run back in the bottom half as Callaghan drove in Fabbo with a double off the centerfield fence to put Ithaca back ahead by nine at 11-2.
Dan Kellechan entered in relief of Lambert in the eighth with two runners on base and one out. Kellechan issued a walk to the first batter he faced to load the bases but he got out of the jam with a pair of infield line outs. Landon White tossed the ninth and struck out one batter.
Brawdy and Fabbo each recorded three hits in the game to pace the offense. Brawdy drove in three runs and Fabbo had two RBI. Callaghan, Fabian and Merod also notched multi-hit outings.