HENRIETTA, N.Y.—Senior pitcher Teck Nash delivered a complete game to lead the third-seeded Hobart baseball team to a 7-2 victory over second-seeded Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute (RPI) on Day 1 of the Liberty League Tournament at the RIT Baseball Complex. Nash struck out four batters and issued no walks on the way to his seventh win of the season.
The win was Hobart's 28th of the season, eclipsing the program record previously held by the 1994 team (27-10).
Nash threw a season-high 116 pitches, 83 for strikes. He allowed eight hits, but only two after the second inning, and two runs, one in each of the first two innings. Nash broke the Hobart season and career records for innings pitched today and tied the season standard for wins.
Sophomore Aidan Davenport collected a game-high three hits and drove in two runs. Senior Christian Petry recorded two hits and drove in two runs. Junior Cole Conte also had two hits, stole two bases and crossed the plate three times.
The Engineers took an early lead in the first inning with Matt Chotiner's RBI single.
Hobart responded in the second inning as Conte walked and advanced on a groundout before scoring on Davenport's RBI single. Petry followed with an RBI single that landed just inside the right field line, and first-year Jack O'Neil reached on a fielder's choice that allowed another run to score, giving Hobart a 3-1 lead.
Rensselaer added a run in the bottom of the second, closing the gap to 3-2 through two innings.
In the sixth inning, Hobart extended its lead when Conte singled and scored on Davenport's second RBI single of the game, making it 4-2. The team added another run in the eighth inning, with first-year Quinn Dashefsky scoring on Petry's RBI single, to push the lead to 5-2.
Hobart secured its victory in the ninth inning with a Dashefsky's two-run double, bringing home Conte and sophomore Jack Farnen.
Hobart (28-11) will face RIT (22-12) in the second round at 12:30 p.m. Friday, May 8 at the RIT Baseball Complex.