UR splits against league foe at home

This past weekend was a tale of two days for the UR baseball team. After getting back on track in Liberty League play by beating Clarkson University twice on Saturday, the team was shut out in both games on Sunday.

The team was scheduled to play Ithaca College on Tuesday and the Rochester Institute of Technology yesterday, but the games were postponed due to inclement weather. The team now stands 24-10 overall and 13-7 in the Liberty League.

UR began the series against Clarkson solidly by dominating game one, 9-4. Sophomore starter Dan Ludwig racked up his second consecutive win by holding the Golden Knights at bay for four and two-thirds innings.

The ’Jackets showed excellent patience at the plate by recording seven hits while walking five times in the third, fourth and fifth innings alone.

Junior left fielder Andy Cannon, leading the team in hits and runs, set the table, reaching base safely in his three trips to the plate. He also scored two runs.

The Yellowjackets continued their success in the second game, winning 5-2.

Freshman right fielder Alex Caghan led the offensive charge with three hits, a walk and four stolen bases. Clarkson committed six fielding errors, and the team rode senior starting pitcher Mike Park to the victory. Despite a shaky first inning, Park did not allow an earned run in seven innings and recorded a staggering nine strikeouts. He now leads the team with five wins.

Sunday was a different story. Clarkson starting pitcher Austin Pitkin, who racked up four strikeouts in seven shutout innings, shut down UR in game one.

The Yellowjackets’ starting pitcher, junior Steve Guzski, nearly matched him. Guzski settled down after allowing a run on a pair of hits in the first inning. He cruised through six innings, allowing the Golden Knights to score just once more.

UR’s best opportunity to score came in the second inning. After two leadoff singles, Caghan laid down a sacrifice bunt to move the runners over, but Pitkin hunkered down.

He struck out sophomore designated hitter Steve Just and forced sophomore center fielder Matt Francis to ground out.

Pitkin allowed only one more hit the rest of the way, and for his efforts, he was named this week’s Liberty League Pitcher of the Week.

Game two saw a similar fate for the ’Jackets, who lost 2-0. Senior starting pitcher Paul Toland dominated Clarkson in seven and two-thirds innings of work. He allowed only one earned run and struck out three batters. He fell to 4-1, but currently leads the UR starters with a 2.45 ERA on the season.

Like Guzski earlier in the day, Toland was bested by the Golden Knights’ starter, Greg Chojecki, who allowed only three hits while striking out seven ’Jacket hitters.

Despite allowing only four runs all day, UR was only able to muster six hits and to draw one walk.

Take Five Scholar and designated hitter Jay Jay Vanderstyne underscored the team’s frustrating performance at the plate.

“I thought Paul [Toland] and Steve [Guzski] threw very well and kept us in the game, and we just couldn’t come up with the clutch hit,” he said.

UR will take on Ithaca in a doubleheader later today.

“We needed to have better approaches at the plate, and we needed to do a better job of making in game adjustments [against Clarkson],” Caghan said.

Despite the team’s Sunday struggles, UR remains in second place in the Liberty League.

If the ’Jackets happen to face a re-match with nationally-ranked Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute in the Liberty League Tournament, both Caghan and Vanderstyne like UR’s chances to prevail, despite losing three games to them last weekend.

“We expect and hope that we will play RPI again, because we need to redeem ourselves from what happened when we played them,” Caghan said.

Wasserman is a member of the class of 2010.