ROCHESTER, N.Y. – The RIT baseball team heads to Saratoga Springs, N.Y., for the Liberty League Tournament at Skidmore's Castle Diamond.
The Tigers begin the double-elimination weekend on Thursday against the host Thoroughbreds at 1:00 P.M.
FOLLOW LIVE
Video streams and live statistics can be found at RITathletics.com, while further updates will be provided on Twitter at @RITAthletics.
WEIGHTED WEST
Three of the four teams in the tournament hail from the Liberty League West Division, including top-seed Rochester, who swept the east division's Bard, 10-2 and 9-3, in last weekend's Crossover Series. Third-seeded Ithaca took two out of three games at RPI, while Skidmore, the lone east division team, swept Clarkson 23-1 and 6-5.
CROSSOVER SERIES SUCCESS
RIT advanced to the tournament after sweeping visiting Vassar last Saturday. In game one, RIT took advantage of five innings of three-hit work from junior pitcher John Arnold and two-RBI by junior John Bagley, senior Chris Reilly, and first-year Robert Reade for the 8-4 win. In the second game, Bagley broke a 3-3 tie with an RBI single in the sixth before senior Peter Bossinas locked up the 4-3 win with a scoreless seventh.
LEADERS
RIT is third in the Liberty League with a .318 batting average, the fifth-best in program history. Bagley ranks ninth in the conference with a .404 batting average, followed by graduate student Ian Libby (.379) and Reilly (.341). First-year Jarin Moses is tied for fifth in the Liberty League with six home runs.
On the mound, RIT has held opponents to a league-low .251 batting average and owns the fourth-lowest ERA (5.58). Graduate student Eric Sipling leads RIT with a 6-0 record and ranks fourth in the conference with a 2.97 ERA while holding opponents to a league-low .186 batting average. Arnold has the league's seventh-best ERA (3.62) and fourth-best opposing batting average (.225). Senior Alex Slotter ranks sixth in the conference with 51 strikeouts.
The Tigers hold the second-highest fielding percentage in the Liberty League (.964) while committing the fewest errors (43).
OFFENSIVE EXPLOSIONS
RIT has had one of the best offensive seasons in program history. The Tigers have the most home runs (23) and the highest slugging percentage (.467) in program history, and their 225 RBI ranks fifth all-time.
The Tigers scored 10 or more runs in nine games this season, including four straight between April 11-15. RIT also scored at least 20 runs twice during the regular season, including a program record 29-1 win over Gallaudet on Feb. 26 and a 20-11 victory over St. Lawrence on April 11.
RECORD CHASERS AND RECORD SETTERS
Reilly leads the Liberty League with 16 doubles and is one short of breaking a tie with Brett Kajanich (2017) for the single-season program record. Reilly is also one home run short of breaking a tie for third in program history with 13 home runs to date.
Libby set a single-game program record with seven hits in the Gallaudet win. He current ranks top 10 in program history with 87 walks, 34 doubles, 153 hits, and 90 RBI.
Senior pitcher Jon Opalewski is sixth in program history with 47 pitching appearances, and is tied for seventh with 160 career strikeouts.
