North Adams, Mass.- The visiting Skidmore College baseball team scored nine times in the first inning and breezed past MCLA 22-1 this afternoon at Joe Wolfe Field.
With the win, Skidmore improves to 8-14 on the season while MCLA drops their eighth straight game in falling to 3-14 on the season.
Skidmore pounded out 20 hits in the victory off ten MCLA pitchers.
In the first inning, Skidmore would collect all the runs they would need as the first eight batters reached off MCLA starter Slayter Aubin. Steven Gilbert led off with a triple to center field and promptly scored on Shankar Mani's double down the left field line for an early 1-0 lead. Two walks and a single brought home another run making it 2-0 and an infield miscue made it 3-0. Patrick Geiger's two run double made it 7-0 and the Thoroughbreds added two more in the frame to lead 9-0 after a half inning.
Gilbert had a triple and a double in the frame as Skidmore sent 13 batters to the plate and collected six hits in the inning chasing Aubin (0-1).
Skidmore added six runs in the fifth on an Eric Damphousse RBI single to left field off the Trailblazer bullpen, and a two run double from Josh Brown. The inning was capped by a three run home run off the bat of Mike LaVita to deep right field.
Brown added a grand slam in the sixth inning with a deep drive to left field increasing the lead to 19-0.
Skidmore's Jacob Berish (1-0) was the beneficiary of the run support as he tossed the first five innings without allowing a run to win the first game of his collegiate career. He allowed five hits and struck out one batter.
MCLA scored their lone run in the seventh on a sacrifice fly off the bat of Nate Gutmann scoring Matt Tobin.
Brown ended the game 3-6 and drove in a game high six runs. Geiger also finished 3-5 with three RBI, while Gilbert finished 4-4 for the Thoroughbreds with an RBI. He had a pair of doubles for Skidmore.
Gutmann and Nick DiSanti each had a pair of hits for MCLA.
The Thoroughbreds get back to Liberty League play Saturday and Sunday, hosting a four-game set with St. Lawrence, starting at 12 p.m. Saturday.
