PRINCE ATHLETIC COMPLEX – First-year
Randy Davis laced a walk-off RBI single in the bottom of the ninth inning, lifting the University of Rochester baseball team to a huge 8-7 Liberty League series-opening win over the Rochester Institute of Technology on Friday night at Towers Field.
Davis, taking just his fourth at-bat of the season, was called on to pinch-hit with the bases loaded in the bottom of the ninth, and came up clutch, roping a line drive over the 5-man RIT infield into an empty center field, sending the Yellowjackets and their fans into the frenzy.
Rochester's win pushes its record to 15-13 overall and 9-6 in Liberty League play, while RIT falls to 20-12 on the season and 9-7 in the conference. In the West Division standings, Rochester now moves ahead of RIT by a half game, with a 6-6 division record, with RIT sitting at 6-7.
The same two teams meet to conclude the final league series of the regular season on Sunday in a doubleheader at RIT's Tiger Stadium.
In this one, Rochester held the early lead, sitting up 3-0 after three innings. First-year
Benjamin Garber got the scoring started with a solo home run in the second inning and two runs scored on a
Josh Leadem base hit, plus an RIT error in the third.
RIT answered back in a big way, scoring six straight runs to take a 6-3 lead. Roberto Reade lifted a solo blast over the center field fence to break the shutout in the fifth.
In the next inning, Charlie Slaymaker had an RBI single and Reade chipped in a sacrifice fly to tie the game at 3-all.
During the seventh, RIT's Jarin Moses provided the go-ahead hit, launching a 3-run home run to left, putting RIT on top by three runs.
The lead didn't last long though, with Rochester grabbing the lead right back with four runs in the bottom half of the frame.
With one out, senior
Jack Corcoran launched his third home run of the season to trim the deficit to two.
Jackson Reed followed with a single and after a walk,
Colby Cruser loaded the bases with a single.
Alexander Gonzalo lifted a sacrifice fly to make it a one-run contest, and after a pitching change, both Leadem and Garber had RBI singles up the middle to put Rochester in front 7-6.
RIT showed its resilience though, scraping a run across in the top of the eighth on a two-out Randy Dodig RBI single to right, tying the game back up.
In the ninth, RIT stranded its potential go-ahead run on second base, setting up the Yellowjackets with a chance to walk-off.
After a ground out to start the bottom of the inning, Gonzalo ripped a double off the wall in left to put the winning run at second base. An intentional walk to Leadem set up the force play and potential double play, but a wild pitch moved both runners up a base.
That forced a mound meeting and later another intentional walk to Garber to load the bases.
Rochester then called on the rookie Davis, with the first-year connecting on a 2-2 pitch into the outfield for the game-winning hit.
Davis' walk off is Rochester's fourth walk-off win of the season, with Leadem,
Sammy Besztery and
Ethan Jaquette also providing game-winning plays for the Yellowjackets in 2025.
On the mound for the Yellowjackets during Friday's game,
Sammy Rosenfield started and went six innings, allowing three runs on five hits. He walked three but struck out seven Tigers.
Matt Casiero relieved and gave up four runs over 1.2 innings, with Cruser coming in to finish off the game, allowing just one hit over 1.1 innings, picking up the win.
At the plate, Garber, Leadem and Reed all finished with two hits, while Leadem and Garber added two RBI's on the night. Both Cruser and Besztery scored twice.
Prior to the game, the 12 Yellowjacket seniors and one graduate transfer were honored as part of Rochester's Senior Day ceremonies with their families.
The game was initially supposed to be the last home game of the regular season, but UR has since added a make-up game at Towers Field next Tuesday against St. Lawrence.
