SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. – Three hundred and sixty-four days after Clarkson swept the Skidmore College baseball team on Castle Diamond, the Thoroughbreds took revenge with a Saturday sweep in a Liberty League crossover series. Skidmore slugged a program record five home runs in the opener for a 23-1 blowout win. Then, Ewen Donald hit a walk-off single in the bottom of the eighth inning of game two to bring around the winning run from second base and send Skidmore into a celebration. The Thoroughbreds advance to the Liberty League Tournament May 11-13.
 

• Skidmore improves to 23-14 with the sweep and finishes conference play with a 12-5 record. The Golden Knights end at 11-23 and 9-11.
• Skidmore will appear in the four-team championship tournament for the first time since 2012.
• Skidmore will join RIT as the two teams to clinch spots with sweeps on Saturday. The other two series will be settled on Sunday.

 
GAME 1 – Skidmore 23, Clarkson 1

• The Thoroughbreds went deep five times, each of which were for at least two runs. Skidmore scored 13 runs off the long ball.
• Skidmore took command with a nine-run first inning fueled by a three-run home run by Trey Bourque and a two-run shot from Jackson Hornung. Skidmore also used a two-run Max Mello single and a two-RBI double off the bat of Danny Melillo.  
• Bourque and Melillo both finished the game 5-for-6. Bourque had four RBI and four runs scored, while Melillo drove in three runs, scored three times, and reached base safely in six out of seven plate appearances. They are the first Skidmore players since Shankar Mani in 2016, and just the fifth and sixth all-time, to have five hits in a game.
• Jaden Torrado drilled a full-count pitch over the fence in left for a three-run homer in the fourth to make it 13-1.
• Zachary Leiderman joined the party in the sixth, when he pulled an 0-2 offering over the left-field fence for two more runs and a 15-1 lead. He finished 4-for-5 with the homer, three singles, and two runs.
• Anthony Petersen also homered on a two-strike pitch in the seventh to make it 17-1.
• The Thoroughbreds finished with six in the eighth on an RBI double from Bourque, a Brendan O'Neill run-scoring fielder's choice, an Anthony Mollica sacrifice fly before Melillo scored one on a double and Donald, the game two hero, completed the scoring with a two-run opposite-field two-bagger.
• The twenty-three runs scored ties the most Skidmore has scored in a game since it scored 26 in Florida in 2016. The program record is 36 (2006).
• Eight Skidmore starters had at least one hit. Eleven players drove in at least one run.
• The Thoroughbreds slugged 13 extra-base hits. Bourque had three of them.
• Ameer Hasan set the tone for Skidmore on the mound by working out of a second-and-third, no-out jam in the top of the first. He struck out three straight batters to get out of it unscathed. Hasan allowed one run over six innings with five strikeouts. He did not issue a walk.
• Peter Martin worked a clean seventh inning before Ethan Caiazza tossed two no-hit frames to close it out.

 
GAME 2 – Skidmore 6, Clarkson 5 (8 inn.)

• Donald lined a payoff 3-2 pitch over the leaping jump of Clarkson first basemen Kent Wilson into right field to score Hornung from second and clinch the series for Skidmore.
• After Clarkson starter Nicholas Hofacker got the first two Skidmore hitters out in the game scheduled for seven innings, Hornung reached first on a throwing error and swiped second to get into scoring position.
• Hofacker threw 142 pitches for Clarkson. He was charged with three earned runs on 12 hits with one walk and four strikeouts.
• After Bourque's second homer of the day with two outs in the fifth gave the Thoroughbreds a 3-2 lead, Clarkson came roaring back with three in the seventh highlighted by a Robert Whalen two-run double. Clarkson tried to score a third run on the play, which would've made it a 6-3 game, but the Skidmore relay nailed the runner at the plate. Earlier, Whalen hit a two-run homer off the top of the right-field fence which tied it at two.
• Skidmore, needing two runs to extend the game in the bottom of the seventh, got just that. Hornung led off with a walk and Leiderman dropped a single inside the right-field line. Three batters later, with the bases loaded and one out, Petersen brought in Skidmore's fourth run with a sacrifice fly to left. Then, down to his last strike, O'Neill got the ball to drop in front of the right fielder to score the tying run to extend the game.
• Christian Giresi earned the win in relief after coming in to limit the damage in the seventh and working through the eighth. The inning ended when he caught the runner leaning off first base for a momentum-swinging pickoff.   
• Quinn Hocom grinded through six quality innings for Skidmore. He allowed two runs, both off the bat of Whalen's home run, on five hits with four walks and two strikeouts.