Vassar Falls in Home-Opening Doubleheader

POUGHKEEPSIE – The Vassar baseball team (1-5, 0-2 Liberty) dropped both games in Saturday’s doubleheader against Liberty League opponent Ithaca (7-5, 2-0 Liberty) at Prentiss Field. The Brewers lost 9-11 in round one and then 1-17 in game two.

Vassar led game one until the final inning when the Bombers rattled off all 11 of their runs to complete the comeback victory. Things started strong for Vassar when first-year Reid Lapekas hit his first-career home run to give the Brewers a 1-0 lead in the first inning. Vassar continued to score at least one run in the next four innings. At the bottom of the third, Alex Warren struck a double, allowing Brent Shimoda to score, making it 3-0. Then in the fourth, Jaden Millstein ran in after an error by the third baseman right before Lapekas reached home from a wild pitch.

Vassar tallied another home run in the fifth with Warren’s first of the season. Senior pitcher Patrick Fitzgerald kept the Bombers’ scoreless, striking out two batters at the top of the sixth. Ithaca gained some momentum right after, though, with three Vassar batters striking out swinging at the bottom of the frame. After a walk, the Bombers got on the board, and an error gave Buzz Shirley the chance to score. Then Matt Fabian tripled to bring Gil Merod home.

Vassar could not slow down the Ithaca hitting after that, allowing five hits and making three errors. Cole Eggleston finally ended the inning by striking out Ethan McDonough. Now playing from behind, the Brewers added three more runs in the final inning before falling.

Fitzgerald finished the game with six strikeouts, while the Bombers’ Garrett Bell and Matteo Ragusa each had five.

IF anything, Ithaca carried right over into game two, exploding for 17 hits with an eight-run fifth inning. The Brewers had a respectable ten hits but were unable to reach home until the seventh inning. A triple from Jack Lynch and then a Garrett Callaghan double brought in two Bomber runners in the first. Neither side scored the successive two frames. Ithaca added four more runs in the fourth, and then the fifth was capped off by a Louis Fabbo homerun. Vassar scored from an Ezra Caspi single that brought in Lapekas in the seventh.

Shirley pitched 5.0 innings for Ithaca and struck out nine Vassar batters while allowing only three hits.

Sunday’s doubleheader against Ithaca has been postponed to Wednesday, April 15 at Ithaca. The game is set to start at 1 p.m.