HOBOKEN, N.J. (April 2, 2017)  – Sophomore Matthew Pasko and freshman Eric Zickert delivered key run-scoring hits, but the Stevens Institute of Technology baseball team fell victim to late-inning home runs and dropped a pair of games to Ithaca College (4-2, 14-5) Sunday to close out their three-game Empire 8 Conference series.

Senior P.J. Wiegartner had a RBI single and senior Michael Mule' homered for the Ducks, who fell to 10-11-1 and 4-2 in E8 play.

Webb Little hit a walk off home run off senior Zeph Walters (2-1) in game one and added a three-run shot off sophomore Charlie Ruegger as Ithaca broke open a 5-5 game with nine runs over the final two innings to complete the sweep. The Bombers moved to 9-6 on the season and evened their record at 2-2 in conference play.

"We played two close games today and unfortunately came out on the wrong end of it," head coach Kristaps Aldins said. "It was great to see our bats come alive in game two, but we just couldn't quite get the big hit we needed."

Trailing 1-0, Stevens struck for two runs in the fourth off Jake Binder (3-0). Nolan Bennett walked to lead off the inning and move to third on Walters' single down the right field line. Wiegartner extended the rally with a single up the middle, scoring Bennett. After a fielder's choice swapped the runners, Zickert connected on a Binder offering, scoring Wiegartner to give the Ducks a 2-1 lead.

Walters allowed an RBI single in the bottom of the fourth to tie the game, but settled down against the Ithaca offense until the final inning. Domenic Boresta led off with an infield bunt single and moved to second on a Walters throwing error. After Josh Savacool flied out Boresta moved when Walters' pickoff attempt was wild. Little followed with a long home run to right center to end the game., 

After suffering a heartbreaking loss in the opener, Mule' wasted little time erasing the game from his memory, homering on the game's first pitch to give Stevens an early lead.

Ithaca responded with a run off Quinn DiPasquale in the first, taking advantage of two errors to move around the bases without registering a hit. Stevens added runs in the second on third on a Sam Little error and a run-scoring double by Bennett.

The Bombers exploded for four runs off DiPasquale in the fourth on a two-out double by Boresta and a Savacool homer to left to take a 5-3 lead. 

Neither starting pitcher factored in the decision. Drew Hanke relieved DiPasquale and spun two shutout innings that allowed the Ducks to rally. Alex Detweiler and Matthew Pasko drove in single runs in the sixth and seventh to tie the game.

Ryan Larsen (1-3) relieved Hanke and after retiring the first two batter in the seventh, Wes Little reached on a two-strike single to right. Trevor Thompson kept the inning alive with an infield single and Sam Little drove in three with a long homer to right.

Ithaca added six runs on four hits against Andrew Hamel and Charlie Ruegger in the eighth to break the game open.

Andrew Bailey (2-1) allowed one run on two hits over 3 2-3 innings to earn his second victory of the season.

Up Next: Baseball returns to action for a non-conference game at Ramapo College on April 5. It begins a stretch of five consecutive road games for the Ducks.

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