TROY, NY – The RIT baseball team (22-13) won its first postseason game in nine years, defeating top-seed Rensselaer (22-15) by a score of 10-8 in day one of the Liberty League Tournament from Robison Field on a warm, sunny, Thursday afternoon. Renssealer rallied from an 8-2 deficit to tie the game at 8-8, but  the Tigers scored two runs in the top of the ninth to get the victory.

RIT will face Clarkson on Friday afternoon at 1 p.m. The winner of that game moves on to the Liberty League Championship on Saturday at 11 a.m. Rensselaer will face Rochester in an elimination game on Friday at 9:30 a.m.
 
Taylor Hogan (Rochester, NY/Brighton) led off with a single in the top of the ninth with a score tied at 8-8. Zach Zabel (Clarence, NY/Clarence) followed it up getting on base via error on an attempted sacrifice bunt, advancing Hogan. Both runners advanced a base on a passed ball. Brett Kajganich (North Royalton, OH/Holy Name) reached on an error that scored Hogan and Zabel to eventually win the game for the Tigers.
 
"It was a great game for out first Liberty League playoff game," said RIT head coach Rob Grow. "We had it all and got tested and were able to commit to winning the game."

RIT started the game on fire with big bats scoring two runs on four consecutive hits in the first inning.  Kajganich, Skip Flanagan (Framingham, MA/Bishop Feehan), and CJ Bolorin (Rochester, NY/Rush-Henrietta) each had singles to load the bases for Will Gorman (Nassau, NY/Columbia). Gorman blasted a base hit to right field that scored Kajganich and Flanagan, giving the Tigers a 2-0 lead.
 
Brian Battaglia (Sliver Spring, MD/James Hubert Blake) had an RBI double in the third inning, while Kajganich and Hogan added RBIs in the fourth and fifth innings, sandwiched around two Rensselaer runs in the third to increase the RIT lead to 5-2.
 
RIT looked to put the game away in the top of the seventh inning, scoring three times to go up 8-2. Zabel executed a squeeze bunt with the bases loaded to score Gorman from third for the Tigers sixth run. Chris Barr (North Wales, PA/North Penn ) hit a sacrifice fly to deep center to score Phil Sammon (Ridgefield, CT/Ridgefield), while Kajganich got on base via error to score Hogan.
 
The Engineers would rally, getting a single run in the seventh on an infield single with the bases loaded by Thomas Desmond to make it 8-3. The following inning, Rensselaer tied the game with five runs in the bottom of the eighth on four hits and no errors. Jared Jensen had the big blow, a bases-clearing double to make it an 8-6 game. Consecutive doubles by Tim LeSuer and Desmod would tie the game at 8-8.

Rensselaer was primed to take the lead, as Jeff Sitarski singled to right field with two outs. Desmond attempted to score the winning run but was cut down at home plate by a perfect throw from Barr, keeping the score tied.

RIT out-hit Rensselaer, 15-13 in the wild affair. Gorman was 3-for-4 on the day with a pair of RBIs and a stolen base, while Hogan was 4-for-5.  The junior shortstop is now 10-for-14 over his last three games, upping his batting average from .273 to .323. Kajganich and Flanagan both added two hits and a run scored each, while Zabel scored twice and stole a base. Bolorin also stole his team-high 20th base in the win. That total is tied for fourth in one season all-time at RIT, just three off the single-season mark.
 
Gorman now has 40 RBIs this season, one shy of the school mark of 41, set by Jeremy Tosh in 2008. Gorman is one of three Tigers to reach 40 RBIs in one season.

Rory Little (Burnt Hills, NY/Burnt Hills-Ballston Lake) started on the mound for the Tigers, throwing a career-high 144 pitches over 7 1/3 innings, scattering nine hits and three earned runs with six strikeouts. Brandon Cohall (Cortlandt Manor, NY/Walter Panas) came on relief to close out the eighth inning and earned his third win, with two big strikeouts over 1 2/3 innings to seal the victory.
 
RIT had 11 hits off of Rensselaer starter Greg Echeverria, who just six days ago, kept the Tiger bats at bay in a 4-1 Rensselaer win. Adam Aponte took the loss on the mound for the Engineers, allowing two unearned runs in the ninth inning.

Offensively, Jensen continued his mastery over the Tigers with three more RBIs. Last weekend, he drove in six runs in the four games against RIT. LeSuer was 4-for-5 with a pair of RBIs, while Nick Palmiero and Desmond had two hits each.
 
Today marked RIT's first postseason appearance since joining the Liberty League in 2012 and first overall since 2008. It was RIT's first postseason victory since May 20, 2006, a 12-8 win over Oneonta State in the ECAC Championship.
 
RIT won its 22nd game of the season, tying for the third most in one year in program history. RIT won 24 games in 2006 and 2007. The Tigers have scored 266 runs this season, one off the school mark of 267, set in 2006. RIT did that in 42 games. They have played 35 games in 2015.
 
The Tigers are now 2-3 this season against the Engineers. Last weekend, the two teams closed out the Liberty League regular season schedule in Troy, with Rensselaer taking three of four games. Rensselaer leads the all-time series between the two schools, 54-19.

Clarkson, Friday's opponent, defeated the University of Rochester 17-1 in the first game of the tournament. RIT and the Golden Knights split a doubleheader on April 15.