Rochester, NY – Senior Brady Torbitt (Fulton, NY) belted a two-run double in the first and a two-run homer in the seventh as the Clarkson University Baseball team eliminated the University of Rochester from the Liberty League Tournament with an 8-0 shutout Saturday afternoon, sending the Golden Knights to the championship round for the second straight season.
The Knights improved to 19-17 overall and will play Skidmore College at 11:00 am. Rochester fell to 29-11 and hopes to gain one of the precious at-large selections for the NCAA Tournament late Sunday evening.
The first inning set the tone early for the game as Jerry Coleman (Potsdam, NY) singled to lead off the contest and Justin McInerney (Grand Island, NY) was hit by a pitch. However, Rochester starter Jon Menke settled in and recorded a pair of outs before Torbitt delivered his two-out hit to put Clarkson on the board.
Sophomore David Kinney (Mexico, NY) struck out in the first inning, but solved Menke in his next at bat, crushing his eighth home run of the season to left-center in the top of the third inning, tying the school-record for home runs in a single season.
Clarkson starter Alex Giovannone (New Hartford, NY) wiggled out of several jams throughout the contest, allowing hits in each of the first frames, but he escaped each inning without allowing any runs. In the sixth, he struck out back-to-back hitters and induced a line out as Clarkson clung to its 4-0 lead.
Scott Morrissey (Troy, NY) drove in a run in the sixth, giving Clarkson that 4-0 edge, but that margin would be short-lived as Torbitt hit a two-out bomb to center. Two more runs crossed in the eighth on an error and a fielder’s choice by McInerney, giving Clarkson its 8-0 lead.
After Giovannone exited in the eighth inning, junior Vincent Baldwin (Catskill, NY) got a key groundout and a strikeout to get out of a bases loaded pickle, and then pitched a scoreless ninth to clinch the win for the Knights.
Torbitt went 2-for-4 with four runs batted in to lead the Knights offensively. Matt Curry (Richland, NY) doubled to the gap in his second at bat, giving him 40 hits on the season and tying him with Brandon Barcomb for the career mark in hits at Clarkson with 177.
Clarkson advances to the Liberty League Championship round and will play for the tournament title for the fifth time in eight seasons.
