PRINCE ATHLETIC COMPLEX – It took ten innings, but the University of Rochester baseball team picked up a late season win over crosstown rival RIT on Sunday afternoon, winning 6-5 on a
Grady Davis sacrifice fly at Towers Field.
URochester's win moves the Yellowjackets to 13-20 overall and 6-12 in Liberty League play, salvaging a win after the Tigers (19-12, 13-4 Liberty League) took both games of a doubleheader on Friday at RIT.
Rookie
James Nelson was solid out of the bullpen for the Yellowjackets, tossing five innings of 1-hit ball, allowing just three walks and no runs. Nelson earned his team leading sixth win of the season, tying for the Liberty League lead.
The visiting Tigers got on the board first in the top of the opening inning. After a 1-out single by Trent Rapp, RIT's Jarin Moses launched a home run to left center, putting his team up 2-0 after just three batters against Rochester starter
Theo Beckley.
An error extended the inning further, but Beckley escaped with no further damage in the opening frame.
In the 'Jackets half of the first, leadoff hitter
Teddy Monahan reached on a walk and later stole second and third base, but was stranded 90 feet from scoring.
RIT starter Liam Miller struck out the side in the second inning, keeping his team in front after two.
The momentum carried over into the top of the third when the Tigers doubled the lead. The runs came on a 2-out, 2-run single up the middle by Charlie Slaymaker. RIT's inning was extended by an error at shortstop by the Yellowjackets, making both runs unearned against Beckley.
URochester fought back with three runs in the bottom of the inning though, with first-year
George Farley IV clearing the bases with a double to left center. Monahan,
Carlos Barajas and
Benjamin Garber all came around to score on Farley's 2-out hit.
RIT added to its lead in the top of the fifth with a RBI single to left by Roberto Reade, scoring Moses who doubled to lead off the inning. The Tigers had three hits in the frame, but stranded two runners on base against reliever
Sunil Lindsay.
The Yellowjackets tied the game up in the bottom of the fifth, scoring two on a
Logan Mathias ground out and
Jake Bentivenga RBI single to right.
Nelson took over on the mound in the sixth and pitched around his only hit allowed, and a hit batter, stranding two RIT runners on in the shutdown inning.
Rochester threatened in its half of the sixth with back-to-back 2-out singles from Barajas and Garber, but the go-ahead runners were left on the base paths. UR got two runners on again in the seventh, but RIT reliever Nolan Bonnell escaped the jam again, keeping the game knotted at 5-all.
Neither team got much of a scoring chance in the eighth or ninth innings, sending the game to extras, which was URochester's third extra-inning game of the season.
In the top of the tenth, Nelson walked the leadoff batter and a wild pitch moved the go-ahead runner to second. But the Tigers lined out a potential sacrifice bunt for the first out, with Nelson inducing a pair of harmless fly outs to end the inning.
URochester ended it in the bottom of the tenth against James Kelly. To open the inning, Jack laced a base hit to left center and legged out a double on a close play at second base.
Zach Herzog pinch-ran for the first-year at second base, with
Nathan Carpenter-Holmes stepping up for a pinch-hit opportunity.
Carpenter-Holmes laid down the sacrifice bunt, with RIT unsuccessfully trying to get the lead runner out at third base, putting two runners on.
That set the stage for Davis to provide the walk-off winner with the sacrifice fly to center. The RBI was the third of the season, and career, for the first-year, all of which have come in the last week and a half.
Offensively, Barajas, Bentivenga and Jack all ended with two hits for the Yellowjackets. Farley drove in three runs with his double while Barajas scored twice.
On the mound, Beckley went 3 innings and allowed 4 hits, 4 runs (2 earned) and 1 walk with 1 strikeout. Lindsay relieved and allowed 3 hits, 1 run and 1 walk while striking out 2.
Nelson's six wins is the most by a Rochester pitcher since the 2023 season when a pair of 'Jacket hurlers earned seven victories.
The Yellowjackets close out the regular season schedule on Wednesday evening against another crosstown team, St. John Fisher, in a non-conference matchup at 7 pm.
