ITHACA, N.Y. – The Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute (RPI) baseball team powered its way to the final game of the Liberty League Championship with victories against Skidmore and Ithaca today at Booth Field on the campus of Cornell University.
The Engineers bested Skidmore 14-3 in an elimination matchup to begin the day before powering past Ithaca 16-6 in the first game of the championship series. The win sends RPI and the Bombers to a final, winner-take-all meeting on Sunday, May 11 at noon.
Matt Chotiner went 5-for-6 with five runs batted in versus Skidmore. Ayush Krishnappa had three hits and Julian Scarpa provided two hits and scored three runs. Jon Primerano reached base four times and Ian Oehlschlaeger touched home three times in the opener as well.
The Engineers plated seven runs in the top of first and never looked back in the win over the Thoroughbreds. Michael Lebenson and Scarpa each produced RBI, while Chotiner drove in a pair as part of the tone-setting rally.
Aidan Hicks had a run-scoring groundout in the third and Lebenson recorded his second RBI of the game in the fourth to help RPI extend its lead. Robbie Reddington also had an RBI single in the eighth.
Primerano highlighted the offensive production in the game versus Ithaca, as his four-hit effort topped a group of six Engineers with multi-hit performances. Krishnappa, Chotiner, Scarpa, Reddington, and Walker Abdallah also registered two hits each. Lebenson, Chotiner, and Abdallah came around to score three times each, while Primerano and Krishnappa both had two runs in the lopsided win.
RPI scored 15 of its 16 runs in the first five trips to the plate. First-inning RBI by Oehlschlaeger and Lebenson got RPI on the right track before the Engineers exploded in the third, fourth, and fifth innings.
Krishnappa laced an RBI double, Scarpa singled in a run, and Chotiner and Reddington delivered two RBI each in the third. Scarpa and Primerano logged an RBI, and Reddington plated two more in the top of the fourth. Another two-run single in the fifth by Scarpa gave the infielder a four-RBI day, matching Reddington. Chotiner capped a three-RBI effort with a sac fly in the sixth.
First pitch in tomorrow's championship-deciding tilt is set for 12:00 pm at Booth Field.