PRINCE ATHLETIC COMPLEX – It was a terrific senior day for the University of Rochester as the Yellowjackets baseball team swept a Liberty League doubleheader against St. Lawrence University with 6-3 and 17-7 wins at Towers Field on Saturday.
 
The Yellowjackets now have won seven straight conference games and remain atop the Liberty League standings with a 12-2 record, moving to 18-7 overall on the year. St. Lawrence drops to 10-8 overall and is an even .500 in the Liberty League, sitting at 5-5.
 
Prior to the doubleheader, the six UR seniors, Dan Agate, Drew Bankovich, Steve Pickering, Hank Powers, Nathan Slenska and Jon Turk were honored with a ceremony on the field pregame, celebrating their final seasons in the blue and gold.
 
Rochester used the bright sunshine to its advantage in the top of the first inning in game one, as with two outs, a high pop out to second was lost in the sun. The ball fell safely to the turf and allowed the Yellowjackets to score two runs on the John Moses base fluke hit. Later in the game, Jackson Reed benefitted from another lost in the sun ball, scampering around for a triple to center field.
 

St. Lawrence was able to scrape a run across in the second, cutting the deficit in half, but the Yellowjackets Moses responded in the third inning with another two-RBI hit, this time a more conventional double to left center, boosting the UR lead to 4-1.
 
Jackson Reed scored on a wild pitch in the fourth to put Rochester ahead 5-1 before the Saints struck for two in the top of the fifth to make the score 5-3, chasing number one starter Turk from the mound.
 
The senior lefty finished the game going 4.2 innings while allowing eight hits and three runs with two strikeouts. He moves to 3-0 on the year. Reliever Thomas Karpishin was stellar out of the bullpen and picked up the save, tossing 2.1 innings of perfect ball, striking out two, earning his second win of the season.
 
Moses ended game one at 3-for-3, driving in four runs. Joseph Rende was 2-for-4 with a run, while Pickering scored twice.
 
SLU's James Cronin had a solo home run and both Andrew Circelli and Michael Goretti had two hits and a run for the Saints.
 
In game two, the Yellowjacket offense exploded for 19 hits and 17 runs, displaying balance throughout the lineup. All nine UR starters scored a run, with eight different players scoring multiple runs in the victory.
 
Aaron Whitley matched the recorded school record with five hits, going 5-for-6 with a season-high six RBI from the leadoff spot. He also recorded two doubles and stole two of UR's seven bases in the victory.

Moses had another strong game in the nightcap, going 3-for-4 with two runs and an RBI. Jacob Matzat rebounded from a hitless game one, going 3-for-5 with a double and two runs in game two.
 

Brian McKinsey and Josh Leadem each had two hits, two runs and two RBI for the Yellowjackets. Reed was also 2-for-5 with two runs and an RBI.
 
Rochester's offense scored multiple runs in four of their eight times up to bat, the biggest coming in a 7-run seventh inning. The big output was more than enough to answer a 5-run top of the frame from St. Lawrence, boosting a narrow 10-7 lead to a 17-7 margin.
 
On the mound for the Yellowjackets, starter Dillon Bevan had terrific stuff, fanning a season-high 11 batters in six innings of work. The first-year righty allowed six hits and two runs with no walks. Slenska was great over the final 2.1 innings, allowing just one hit and one walk while striking out three, earning his first career save.
 
Both Circelli and Goretti had solo home runs for the Saints in game two while Nicholas Butler was 2-for-5 with a triple and two RBI.
 
The same two teams will meet on Sunday in another doubleheader at UR's Towers Field, starting at 11 am. This season, conference weekends were supposed to be home-and-home series', but because of forecasted bad weather in Canton, the entire series shifted to Rochester this weekend.