Baseball | 3/22/2014 7:38:00 PM

Box Score 1 | Box Score 2

AUBURNDALE, FL – The RIT baseball team (2-1) split a pair of contests at the RussMatt Baseball Classic on Saturday afternoon at Lake Myrtle Park. RIT opened the day by losing to UMass Dartmouth by a score of 18-2 and rebounded to defeat Kalamazoo College later in the day by the same 18-2 score. Both games were scheduled to go nine innings, but were called after seven due to a 10-run rule.

Against Kalamazoo, RIT scored six times in the second inning, three times in the third, once in the fourth, and put the game away with eight fifth inning runs.

In the second inning, Mike Myers (Hamilin, NY/Brockport) picked up his first collegiate hit with the bases loaded, scoring a pair of runs to make it 2-0 Tigers. After Zach Zabel (Clarence, NY/Clarence) walked with the bases loaded to make it 3-0, CJ Bolorin (Rochester, NY/Rush-Henrietta) plated two more runs with a single through the right side, making it 5-0.

In the fourth inning, Walt Roman (Spencerport, NY/Spencerport) crushed a pitched over the scoreboard in left field for his second home run in as many days, giving RIT a 10-0 lead.

After Kalamazoo scored twice in the bottom half of the fourth to make it 10-2, RIT put up eight runs in the fifth inning to put the game away.  Skip Flanagan (Framingham, MA/Bishop Feehan) crushed a triple to right field with the bases loaded, giving RIT a 13-2 edge. After Flanagan scored on an error to give RIT its 14th run of the day, Will Gorman (Nassau, NY/Columbia) singled home a pair of runs and Chris Barr (North Wales, PA/North Penn ) doubled in two more runs, giving the Tigers an 18-2 advantage.  

Despite scoring 18 runs, RIT had just 11 hits, but drew seven walks and were hit by three pitches. Zabel reached four times, drawing three walks, while scoring twice, and driving in two runs. Barr was 2-for-4 with three runs scored and a pair of RBI's. Taylor Hogan (Rochester, NY/Brighton) scored three times, while Phil Sammon (Ridgefield, CT/Ridgefield) walked three times and scored a pair of runs.  

Ronnie Canestro (East Amherst, NY/Nichols) made his first start of the season a strong one, allowing two runs on five hits over four innings, striking out six batters in four innings to pick up his first win since 2012. Tyler Leichtenberger (Warren, PA/Warren Area) hurled two scoreless innings of relief, while Brian Sheridan (Trumansburg, NY/Trumansburg) hurled a perfect seventh inning to finish it out.

In the opener, the RIT bats could not solve UMass Dartmouth starter Shawn Callahan, who allowed just five hits and a pair of unearned runs in the bottom of the seventh inning. Jake Shattuck (Rochester, NY/Penfield) drove in RIT's first run in its final at-bat with a groundout and Brian Battaglia (Sliver Spring, MD/James Hubert Blake) ripped a run-scoring double.

Connor Shaw and Ben Monteiro drove in four runs apiece for UMass Dartmouth. Ryan Medeiros, Connor Shaw, and George Agostini scored three runs apiece. Shaw hit a three-run homer in the sixth inning that made it 9-0.

It was RIT's first ever meeting against both teams.

RIT returns to action on Monday, with a doubleheader against Elmhurst College at 11 a.m. in Winter Haven, Fla. at Chain of Lakes Park.