SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. – The Skidmore College baseball team celebrated its senior class before hosting Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute in a Liberty League East doubleheader between the top two teams in the division on Saturday. Skidmore mercy-ruled the guests in seven innings in game one, 12-2, before RPI took a 9-7 extra-inning decision in the nightcap.

• RPI (16-9, 9-3 LL East) has clinched the division with a two out of three series win over Skidmore. The Engineers will host the No. 4 seed out of the west in a crossover series May 4-5.
• Skidmore (16-12, 6-3 LL East) is tied with Union for second. The winner of next weekend's three-game series will earn the right to host a crossover series.

 
Skidmore 12, Rensselaer 2 (7 inn.)

• After being shut out by the Engineers on Friday, the Thoroughbreds put up a run on a second inning single by Nate Vandersea.
• Freshman left fielder Owen Roy, who had reached on a fielder's choice, scored from second base.
• Skidmore exploded for six runs on four hits in the third inning to take a commanding 7-0 lead.
• The first five batters reached base in the frame (3 hits, 2 walks) with two coming home on a bases loaded double to right field by Roy.
• A one out, three-run home run to right field by sophomore Eddie Galvao gave the Thoroughbreds a seven-run cushion.
• Shaw Pedemonti, a senior, started the third inning with a single before stealing two bases and coming home on a single by Zachary Leiderman.
• RPI got on the scoreboard with an unearned run in the fourth inning, but Skidmore got it right back thanks to a homer to left by Trey Bourque.
• Two more runs in the fifth, one plated on a single by Bourque and the other from a Liederman base hit, made it 10-1.
• Both teams scored once in the sixth inning – Skidmore's coming on a home run down the left field line by Roy – to put the score at 11-2 after six complete.
• The game ended when Sam Kornet homered with two outs in the seventh inning, allowing the conference's run-rule to apply.
• Bourque went 3 for 3 with three runs and two runs batted in.
• Four players had two hits apiece, including Roy (2 for 4, 3 runs, 3 RBI) and Kornet (2 for 3, 2 runs, 1 RBI).
• Freshman righthander Chase Siegel went the distance for the win, allowing four hits, two walks, two runs (1 earned) with three strikeouts in 7.0 innings.
• Starter Alex Vallee took the loss for RPI, which had four singles from four different hitters.

 
Rensselaer 9, Skidmore 7 (11 inn.)

• Skidmore led by two runs with two outs in the ninth when an outfield miscue resulted in the tying runs coming around to score.
• Aidan Hicks worked an eight-pitch walk with one out in the visiting half of the 11^th. Walker Abdallah scored him all the way from first on a single to the right-center field gap. Abdallah moved to second on a walk to Charlie Lapp before sliding to third in a wild pitch and scoring on a Jon Primerano double.
• The two-run cushion was enough for RPI reliever Cameron Heuer. He pitched three shutout innings of relief to earn the win.
• Skidmore was shut down by RPI starter Cooper Hay through six innings. The Thoroughbreds got to the first reliver right away, cutting into RPI's 5-1 lead with a Jaden Torrado RBI double. After two walks, Kornet greeted the next arm in by hitting a grand slam, his second homer of the day, to give Skidmore a 6-5 lead.
• The Thoroughbreds extended the lead to two when Kornet was hit with the bases full in the eighth, but was unable to extend the lead further and later left on a pair of runners in both the ninth and 11^th innings.
• Skidmore relievers Ethan Caiazza and Christian Giresi combined for 3.2 shutout innings to keep the team in it until Kornet's big blow in the seventh.
•  Leiderman also hit a home run for Skidmore to put the hosts on the board in the fourth. It cut the RPI lead to 3-1 before the visitors added two more in the fifth.

 
UP NEXT: Skidmore hosts Russell Sage College on Wednesday afternoon (4 p.m.) before facing Union College in a three-game set on the weekend.