Box Score

TROY, N.Y. – Chris Donaldson’s (Gorham, ME/Gorham) one-out single in the ninth inning scored junior Ryan Kimber (Jamesville, NY/Jamesville-DeWitt) with the winning run to give St. Lawrence University a 6-5 win over the University of Rochester in the first game of the four-team, double elimination tournament at Robison Field.

The Saints, the second seed, improve to 20-12 and advance to the winners’ bracket against the winner of the second game, which features Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute (RPI), the top seed and host, against fourth-seeded Skidmore College, on Saturday at 9:30am. The Yellowjackets (21-15), the third seed, play an elimination game on Saturday at 1pm.

After Rochester tied the game with two runs in the top of the ninth inning, SLU’s Kimber led off the bottom of the frame with a walk. He was sacrificed to second base and scored just before the catchers’ tag on Donaldson’s hit to rightfield.

The Yellowjackets got on the board in the top of the first inning when freshman centerfielder Andy Cannon (LaGrange, IL/Lyons Township) singled to lead off the game and scored on a double to right centerfield by the next hitter, junior rightfielder Jim Bard (Grosse Isle, MI/Chesterton).

St. Lawrence got the run back in the second inning and then scored two more in the third for a 3-1 lead. Senior Andrew Engebretson (Long Lake, MN/Orono), the Liberty League Player of the Year, drove home a run in the third with a double and then scored in the same inning for a 3-1 Saints lead.

The Yellowjackets tied the game at 3-3 with single runs in the fourth and fifth innings before St. Lawrence scored once in the fifth and seventh innings. A Blayne Fuke (Kailua, HI/Mid-Pacific Institute) single scored Rochester’s second run and a J.J. Vanderstyne (Victor, NY/Victor) ground out tied the game. For St. Lawrence, a single by Donaldson scored Joel Kochan (Liverpool, NY/Liverpool), who had doubled, in the fifth inning and Joe Regonlinski (Wayland, MA/Wayland) homered to right field in the seventh.

Rochester tied the game in the ninth with the help of doubles by Fuke and Cannon, both of whom came around to score.

St. Lawrence reliever Ryan Duff (Concord, MA/Cushing Academy) earned the win to improve to 2-0, while the Yellowjackets’ fifth pitcher, John Fishback (Penfield, NY/Webster Schroeder), took the loss. He is now 3-1.

Donaldson finished with three hits and two runs in five at bats and Regonlinski was 2 for 4 with a run and two runs batted in. For Rochester, Cannon was 3 for 5 with three runs and an RBI, while Bard was 3 for 5, including two doubles, and a run batted in.