ROCHESTER, NY – The No. 4 seed RIT baseball team (20-17-1) had its 2018 season come to an end, falling to top-seed University of Rochester (18-16), 8-4 in game five of the double-elimination Liberty League Championship Tournament at Towers Field on Friday evening. Rochester will host No. 2 Union College in the championship round starting Saturday at 12 p.m.
 
Rochester scored in six of its eight innings and jumped out to leads of 4-0 and 8-1 before RIT, the 2017 Liberty League Champions, gave one last valiant effort, scoring three times in the top of the ninth inning.
 
Daniel Capra (North Salem, NY/North Salem) led off the top of the ninth inning with a double to left center field. With the Tigers down to their last out, Navada Waterman (Coudersport, PA/Coudersport) laced a shot down the left field line that bounced away from and past the left fielder, all the way to the wall. Waterman flew around the bases and easily beat the throw home for an inside the park home run, the first of his career, cutting the lead to 8-3. Joey Mylott (Aurora, OH/Western Reserve Academy) would follow with a double down the right field line and twin brother Patrick would drive him in with a single to left, making it an 8-4 game. Rochester pitcher Jack Danzer would bear down and get the final out.
 
Danzer was in command for the first eight innings, allowing just seven hits and one run, while Rochester built a big lead. He would throw 114 pitches in his complete-game effort to move to 5-2 on the season.
 
Rochester received contributions throughout the lineup, as eight of the nine batters had at least one hit and seven players drove in a run. Jack Herman was 3-for-5 with a double, two runs scored and a RBI. Aiden Finch and Jake Hertz both were 2-for-4 with a run scored and RBI.
 
Joey Mylott (Aurora, OH/Western Reserve Academy) was 2-for-5 with two runs scored for the Tigers, while Patrick Mylott (Aurora, OH/Western Reserve Academy) was 2-for-5 with a run batted in. Dalton Murray (Savannah, NY/Clyde-Savannah) added two hits, while Waterman drove in a pair of runs with his ninth inning home run.
 
Stevie Branche (New Paltz, NY/New Paltz) started on the mound for the Tigers and took the loss, going six innings. Michael Campbell (Honeoye Falls, NY/McQuaid Jesuit) pitched 1 1/3 of relief, while Kyle Povlock (Fairport, NY/Fairport) got the final two outs for the Tigers.
 
Rochester won the season series between the two schools, 4-2. It was the six meeting in the last six calendar days as RIT and Rochester split a pair of doubleheaders to end the regular season last weekend and Rochester recorded a 12-3 win over the Tigers in Liberty League Tournament play yesterday.
 
Tonight marked RIT's fourth Liberty League Tournament contest in 33 hours. On Thursday morning, RIT won the wild card game to enter the tournament over No. 5 seed Rensselaer, 3-2 on a walk-off bases-loaded walk by Jason Schulz (Liverpool, NY/Liverpool) in the bottom of the ninth inning. Last night, the Tigers fell to Rochester, before defeating No. 3 seed Vassar College, 11-4 in an elimination game earlier today.
 
It was the final game for seniors Gage Blasi (Baldwinsville, NY/C.W. Baker), Brett Bouchard (Fairport, NY/Fairport), Nick Claver (Liverpool, NY/Liverpool), Dalton Murray (Savannah, NY/Clyde-Savannah), Kyle Povlock (Fairport, NY/Fairport), Brian Reed (Rochester, NY/Penfield), Dom Scialabba (North Brunswick, NJ/North Brunswick) and Benjamin Terzini (Liverpool, NY/Liverpool). This group helped lead RIT to 94 wins over the last four seasons.
 
"I can't say enough about what this senior class means to RIT baseball," said RIT head coach Rob Grow. "They got us to an NCAA Tournament and represented the program with class on and off the field."