ANNANDALE-ON-HUDSON, N.Y. – The Skidmore College baseball team won the first game, 12-3, before falling in game two, 3-2, to split the first two games of a three-game division series against Bard on Sunday.
 
The Thoroughbreds have a half-game lead in the Liberty League East and will enter play on Monday at 12-6 overall and 3-2 in the division. The Raptors are 4-8 and 2-3.
 
GAME 1 – Skidmore 12, Bard 3

• Max Mello hit a two-out opposite field double to score Jackson Hornung, who walked, from second in the first inning and give Skidmore a 1-0 lead.
• Ameer Hasan ran into trouble in the bottom half of the first. Two singles set up a first-and-third situation with nobody out. Hasan got the first out on an infield pop up. Then, he caught the runner breaking towards second for the second out and got the next guy looking to get out of the inning without allowing a run.
• Skidmore scored seven times in the second inning by the time Bard recorded its first out as the Thoroughbreds plated eight total runs to take a 9-0 lead. Sam Kornet and Trey Bourque had the big swings in the inning. Kornet launched a two-run home run to left field. He also hit an RBI single in his second trip to the plate in the inning. Bourque cleared the bases with a triple to center field.
• Danny Melillo doubled in the third inning and came around to score on an error to make it 10-0.
• In the fourth, Kornet doubled in another run to make it 11-0 and Brendan O'Neill scored from third one batter later when Cameron Pedemonti grounded out. Kornet finished the game 3-for-4 with four RBI and a triple shy of a cycle.
• Melillo reached base all four times. He was 3-for-3 with a double, two runs scored, and a walk.
• Bard scored all three of its runs in the bottom of the eighth on a Jake Stacey bases-clearing triple.
• Hasan went 7.2 innings for Skidmore in the win. All three runs against him were unearned. Hasan struck out seven batters and issued two walks.

 
GAME 2 – Bard 3, Skidmore 2 (7 inn.)

• In a classic pitcher's duel, the two starters went pitch for pitch. Aidan Risse for Bard got the complete-game win. He was charged with just two unearned runs on three hits. Risse struck out eight and walked three.
• For Skidmore, Quinn Hocom was hit with the tough-luck loss. Hocom surrendered three runs, two earned, on five hits with eight strikeouts and two walks over 5.1 innings of work.
• Bard, playing as the visiting team on its home turf, scored the game's first run in the top of the third inning. It was the only run scored until the sixth.
• Skidmore had chances to score in the fifth inning, when it loaded the bases with two outs, and then again in the fourth after a pair of walks moved the tying run into scoring position with two outs.
• Bard scored two insurance runs in the sixth, which proved to be the difference. Sam Dumper singled to lead off and moved to second on a successful sacrifice bunt. A single, stolen base, and intentional walk loaded the bases with one out. Bard's second run came across on an infield error and the third scored a batter later on a Mike Lynch sacrifice fly.
• Thoroughbred reliever Ethan Caiazza got the next batter out to stop the bleeding.  Caiazza also pitched a scoreless seventh.
• In the Skidmore sixth, a dropped fly ball and a wild pitch put runners at second and third with one out. The Thoroughbreds settled for one run on a Zachary Leiderman pinch hit RBI ground out.
• Another error and a hit batter put the tying run for the Thoroughbreds on base in the seventh. Mello hit a double to score Skidmore's second run and move the tying run to third. Risse induced a first pitch ground out to strand the tying run at third.

 
NEXT UP: The rubber match of the three-game series will also be Skidmore's home opener on Monday, April 3 at the Castle Diamond at 3:30 p.m.