ITHACA, NY—Despite excellent pitching performances by freshman Garrett Alread (Victor, NY, Victor) and sophomore Victor Cavalieri (Rochester, NY, Northstar Christian) the Houghton Highlanders dropped a pair of games to the Ithaca Bombers on Saturday at Freeman Field, 1-5 and 7-8. 
 
Game 1: The Bombers broke a 1-1 tie in the fifth, scoring three runs and eventually pulling ahead by four in the sixth.
 
Ithaca plated the first run in the bottom of the second with an RBI groundout. 
 
Houghton responded in the top of the fourth when Garret Kirkpatrick (York, PA, Central York) hit a two-out single to centerfield, scoring Michael Knapp (Brockport, NY, Brockport).
 
John Prendergast picked up the win for the Bombers, allowing only the one run on six hits over six strong innings.  Prendergast did not allow a walk and struck out six.
 
Alread allowed only two earned runs over six innings, giving up eight hits and a walk while striking out four.
 
Joseph Gilligan (Ringwood, NJ, Lakeland Regional) and Taylor Huntsman (Niagara Falls, NY, Niagara Falls) each went 2-for-3 with a double for the Highlanders.  TTage Johnson (Jamestown, NY, Frewsburg) also added a double.
 
Game 2:  The Highlanders built a six-run lead late in the game, only to watch it slip away as the Bombers scored two in the seventh and five in the eighth to earn the two-game sweep.
 
Houghton broke the scoreless deadlock in the fifth after Knapp singled, stole second and Patrick Parsons (Wellsboro, PA, Wellsboro) singled to right field and both runners advanced on a pair of throwing errors.  Johnson then plated Parsons with a deep fly ball to centerfield.
 
Ithaca cut the lead in half in the bottom of the sixth with a deep double to center and a pair of groundouts.
 
In the top of the seventh the Highlanders opened things up, scoring five runs on a walk, an error and four consecutive hits by Parsons, Johnson, Bryan Hodge (Thornton, CO, Community Christian) and Kirkpatrick.
 
After Ithaca trimmed the Houghton lead to 7-3 in the bottom of the seventh, the Bombers scored another in the bottom of the eighth and had runners at the corners with nobody out.  A tailor-made double-play ball then found a way through the legs of a Houghton infielder and the Bomber's scored another and their inning continued.
 
With the score finally knotted at seven, Cameron Outhout scored the eventual winning run as a pitch off the outside corner deflected off the catcher's mitt and the pitcher failed to cover home.
 
Cavalieri finished his day with six strikeouts in six innings, walking two and giving up five hits.
 
Parsons and Johnson each went 2-for-4.  Johnson finished with a double and three RBI for the Highlanders.
 
The two teams will meet again tomorrow at 3:30 p.m. on Freeman Field in Ithaca for the final game of the three-game series.