By Steven Merritt
POUGHKEEPSIE – The Vassar College Baseball team opened up Liberty League play in its home opener on Friday afternoon as the Brewers fell 9-4 against Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute in the conference opener at Prentiss Field.
Kameron Levesque opened the scoring on Friday as he blasted a solo home run down the left field line to give the Engineers a 1-0 lead in the second.
RPI”s lead grew to three as Jon Primerano doubled home Levesque and Primerano scored on a double steal attempt in the sixth.
Junior Daniel Laderman cut the lead to one in the bottom half of the inning when he doubled to right field scoring junior Marc Milano and senior Jack Silvera.
The Engineers pushed the lead back to three in the seventh as Martin Marintchev scored Aidan Hicks on a sacrifice fly followed by Joey Saia plating Walker Abdallah on a single.
Laderman singled home sophomore Jensen Bergman in the eighth and Milano scored on an error to trim the lead to 5-4.
RPI extended the lead to 9-4 in the ninth as Levesque knocked in Abdallah on a sacrifice fly followed by Saia scoring on a wild pitch and Robbie Reddington singled through the right side to plate Primerano and Matt Chotiner.
For The Brewers
Laderman finished the day 2-for-3 with three runs batted in while senior Jaden Millstein and junior Birch Herring-Jackson each recorded a hit.
Senior Michael Came took the loss on the mound as he went six innings, allowing seven hits, three runs, two walks and struck out two.
For The Engineers
Levesque went 2-for-3 with a homer, two runs scored and two RBI while Chotiner finished with three hits.
Primerano and Reddington each tallied two hits while Reddington knocked in two runs.
Julian Fong-McAdams earned the win as he tossed six innings, allowing two hits, two runs, four walks and struck out seven.
Cameron Heuer picked up his first save of the season as he went two innings, giving up one hit, one run, two walks and struck out one.