MYRTLE BEACH, SC – The University of Rochester baseball team saw its offense keep rolling in a 14-11 slugfest victory over Ursinus College on Wednesday afternoon at the Ripken Experience in South Carolina.
 
The game featured six home runs, three by each team, with two players, UR's Harper Sy, and Ursinus' Keegan Stem both clocking two long balls. Rochester's Luke Gregory added one and Jared Minnichbach clobbered the other home run for Ursinus.
 
UR improves to 6-1 on the season while Ursinus falls to 5-3. The same two teams meet for a doubleheader on Thursday starting at 10 am.
 
The Yellowjackets pounded out 18 hits in the victory, with Sy, Aaron Whitley, Colby Cruser and Jackson Reed all recording three. Sy finished with a career-high 6 RBI, added 3 runs and 2 steals. Whitley reached base 5 times, had 4 runs scored and stole 2 bases. Both Reed and Luke Piontek scored two runs, while Josh Leadem went 2-for-6 and finished with three steals.
 
Ursinus' top five in the batting order all finished with multiple hits. Stem scored four runs and had three RBI. Jakob Cantor had three runs. Tom Snipes had a double, two RBI and run while Minnichbach finished 2-for-4 with two runs, a double and homer.
 
UR's Cruser got the scoring started in the top of the first driving in Whitley who led off the game with a double. In the bottom of the frame, Ursinus tagged Rochester starter Mark Aaronson for two runs to take the early lead.
 

In the second, a Yellowjacket error allowed two unearned runs to come across and Ursinus led 4-1.
 
Cruser again singled in Whitley in the third to cut the deficit to two after three innings.
 
Sy launched his first homer of the day in the top of the fifth, smashing a no-doubt 2-run blast to left, tying the score for the moment.
 
The Bears regained the lead with three runs in the fifth. Snipes had an RBI double, Stem scored on a wild pitch and Matteo Falcone drove in a run with a single.
 
Rochester's Aaronson finished the day giving up seven runs (5 earned) in 4.2 innings on the mound. He walked three and struck out five in his first collegiate start.
 
After getting the final out in relief during the fifth inning, T.J. Snyder was unable record an out for Ursinus in the sixth, as Rochester sent a total of 11 batters to the plate in a seven-run frame. The inning gave UR an 11-7 lead, one which UR would hang onto for the rest of the contest.
 
Gregory led off the big inning with a opposite field solo home run. Jacob Matzat walked and reached third on an error and Reed singled him in. After Whitley singled and reached second with Reed on third, a wild pitch got away and two runs scampered home to push Rochester ahead.
 
Cruser and Piontek followed with singles and Sy clobbered another home run, this time a 3-run shot, to put the Yellowjackets up 11-7.
 
Ursinus got one run back in the seventh a Minnichbach's home run, but a first and third double-steal by Rochester in the top of the eighth built the lead back to four.
 
Things got a bit hairy for Rochester in the bottom of the eighth. Cantor led off with a single and Stem homered to make the game 12-10. Another single was erased by a 6-4-3 double play, but the next four batters reached to score another run, trimming the deficit to one. Pinch hitter Tim Pyne drove in the last Ursinus run when he was hit with a pitch with the bases loaded.
 
Rochester turned to Jake Larson to escape the jam, and he did just that, retiring the ninth hitter of the inning with a pop out on just one pitch.
 
The Yellowjackets added two insurance runs in the ninth and Larson sat down the Bears in order during the bottom of the ninth for the save.