Baseball | 4/18/2013 7:19:00 PM

Box Score

ROCHESTER, NY – Despite 16 hits, and a furious ninth inning rally, the RIT baseball team (10-11) fell to visiting SUNY Brockport (15-13) 11-10 at Tiger Stadium on a warm, breezy Thursday afternoon. It was the first official home contest played at Tiger Stadium this season.

Trailing 4-3 in the top of the fourth inning, Brockport's bats exploded for five runs on the strength of three long home runs. Mike Weakley hit a line drive over the left field wall with a runner on to give Brockport the 5-4 lead. The next batter, Brendan Swayne, made it back-to-back homers with a shot to left center field. Nick Bunce punctuated the rally with an absolute no doubt about it shot to left field, a two-run homer, making it 8-4.

RIT would rally with runs in the fifth and seventh to cut the Brockport lead to 8-6, but the Golden Eagles scored two insurance runs in the eighth to go up 10-6 and added one in the ninth to make it 11-6.

Down to its final out, RIT would get four straight hits and a walk to cut the Brockport lead to 11-8. Walt Roman (Spencerport, NY/Spencerport) would then make things real interesting, reaching on an infield single to drive in one run, with the errant ensuing throw by shortstop Dan Hurliman also allowing Ronnie Canestro (East Amherst, NY/Nichols) to score, making it 11-10. With the tying run on third and winning run on first, Brockport pitcher Kyle Montross got Matt Holtby (Honeoye Falls, NY/Honeoye Falls-Lima) to pop up to the catcher for the third and final out.

The two teams combined for 29 hits and just one error. Both teams used six pitchers apiece in the nearly three hour contest.

Eight of Brockport's 13 hits went for extra bases. Swayne was 3-for-4 with a home run, three runs scored, and three RBI's. Bunce drove in three runs, while Jake Coleman, Kyle Tracy, and Dan Hurliman had two hits apiece.

Brockport's Bradley Westling picked up the win in relief, allowing just three hits and one run in 3 1/3 innings.

Eight of RIT's nine starters had at least one hit. Freshman Zach Zabel (Clarence, NY/Clarence) was 3-for-4 with two doubles and three runs scored. Brett Kajganich (North Royalton, OH/Holy Name) was 3-for-5 with two runs scored and two RBI's, while Canestro was 3-for-4 with two runs scored and a run batted in. Both Kajganich and Canestro added stolen bases as well. Skip Flanagan (Framingham, MA/Bishop Feehan) drove in a pair of runs, while Jared Bell added two hits.

Chris Dickinson (Honeoye Falls, NY/Honeoye Falls-Lima) took the loss for RIT, allowing five runs in relief over 1 2/3 innings. RIT did receive strong relief from (West Babylon, NY/Landmark)Brian Sheridan#, Brandon Cohall (Cortlandt Manor, NY/Walter Panas), and Seth Noreman (Old Bethpage, NY/Old Bethpage-JFK), who combined to throw four scoreless innings.

Brockport took an early 3-0 lead in the second inning off of RIT starter Conor Herlihy (Geneseo, NY/Geneseo), as Swayne hit a two-run single just over the glove of a leaping CJ Bolorin (Rochester, NY/Rush-Henrietta), and then came around to score on a single by Jake Coleman.

RIT got a run back in the bottom half of the inning, as Brian Brazee (Auburn, NY/Auburn) singled, advanced to second on a wild pitch, moved to third on a groundout, and scored on a single through the left side from Greg Schworm (Rochester, NY/Churchville Chili).

The Tigers took their first lead of the game in the bottom of the third inning, using heads up base running and timely hitting to scoring three times and take a 4-3 lead.  Zabel led off with a double down the right field line and scored on a single by Kajganich. After a single by Canestro moved to Kajganich to third, the freshman outfielder broke quickly on a ball in the dirt that was knocked down to the side by the catcher and scored to tie the game.  A sacrifice fly by Flanagan scored Canestro to give RIT its only lead of the day and chase Brockport starter Matthew Coleman.

The Tigers defeated Brockport on the campus of Monroe Community College earlier in the season, on March 12 by a score of 3-2.

Brockport leads the all-time series between the two schools, 64-48.

The Tigers return to action with a pair of home doubleheaders against Liberty League rival Union on Saturday and Sunday. Saturday's games begin at 1 p.m., while Sunday's doubleheader gets underway at 12 p.m.