The Ithaca College baseball team split a double header with Houghton College on April 23 at Freeman Field. The Bombers dropped the first game 3–2, and won the second game 9–7 and are now 17–13 on the season.
The Lions got on the board first in the third inning when sophomore shortstop Jeremy Newswanger doubled to right field to score freshman second basemen Joe Gross.
In the bottom of the third, the Blue and Gold bounced back with their own run when sophomore catcher Chris Dietz doubled to right center field to score junior third basemen Cam Fuoti to tie the game 1–1.
Houghton took the lead again in the top of the fifth when senior first basemen Tage Johnson singled down the third base line to score freshman right fielder Jared Couch.
In the bottom of the sixth, the South Hill squad tied the game again when junior first basemen Andrew Bailey grounded out to shortstop, causing junior shortstop Webb Little to cross home plate.
The game concluded with the Lions putting the final run on the board. Newswanger had an RBI single in the seventh to score sophomore Whitney Cook and win the game.
In the second game, the Blue and Gold responded with an offensively-packed 9–7 win. The Bombers got on the board first when Little grounded out, but senior left fielder Domenic Boresta scored on an error by the Lions. Later in the inning, Bailey scored on another error by Houghton and then the Bombers capped off the inning when junior center fielder Sam Little crossed the plate after a sacrifice fly by sophomore catcher Andrew Gallagher.
The Bombers continued to put up the runs with four more in the second inning to extend the lead to 7–1. In the bottom of the third, the South Hill squad put up two more runs to take a controlling 9–1 lead.
After the third inning, the Lions began to fight back by scoring six unanswered runs through five innings. Houghton got started with a two-run home run by freshman catcher Wayne Rode. Johnson earned two more RBIs after singling to left field in the fifth inning to cut the lead to 9–5.
Later on in the inning, junior designated hitter Ben Closson hit a single to score two more runners and cut the deficit to 9–7. However, in the bottom of the ninth, the Lions could not score any more runs.
Boresta finished the game going 3–5 with two RBIs and two doubles. Fuoti finished the day going 2–4.
The South Hill squad is back in action at 4 p.m. April 24 against No. 24 Oswego State at Freeman Field.
