HOUGHTON, NY—After scoring 78 runs over the last seven games the Ithaca Bombers (18-8, 10-3 Empire 8) held the Houghton Highlanders (12-17, 2-10 Empire 8) to five runs over 16 innings of play, sweeping both ends of a doubleheader, 7-1 and 9-4.
 
Game One: The Bombers scored two quick runs in the first then took advantage of a two-out Houghton error that led to three more runs.
 
Houghton scratched back a run in the bottom of the second when David Wessells drove in Jeremy Newswanger with a single to centerfield.
 
Ithaca added runs in the third and fifth as they rapped out 14 hits, did not make an error in the field, and did not allow a single walk.
 
Griffin Tubbs allowed only one run in three innings of relief for the Highlanders.  Newswanger and John Zamites each went 2-for-3 in the loss.
 
Game Two: Ithaca again jumped out to an early lead, scoring one in the first and two more with two-outs in the second.
 
Houghton trimmed the lead to 3-1 in the bottom of the second inning when Garret Kirkpatrick drove in Tage Johnson with a single to centerfield.
 
The Bombers, however, answered quickly with four more runs in the top of the third.
 
After Ithaca extended their lead to 9-1 the Highlanders showed signs of life in the seventh when Taylor Huntsman drilled a bases-loaded double to the wall in left-center, scoring all three base runners.
 
While the Highlanders would put runners in scoring position in each of the next two innings, they failed to draw closer than the five-run deficit. 
 
Ithaca again played excellent defense, committing only one error on an errant pick-off attempt.
 
Carl Holmes struck out five batters over 3.1 innings of relief for Houghton, and John Kopicky tossed three scoreless innings, striking out four.
 
Kirkpatrick and Zamites each had two hits in the losing effort.
 
Coach's Corner:
"In the first game we actually put a lot of quality swings on the ball; we just kept hitting it at them.  In the second game their pitcher got a lot of ground balls, and they played excellent defense all day.
 
"We made a couple baserunning blunders and a couple defensive errors and that's all a team like Ithaca needs to beat you.  They played well in every facet of the game—hitting, pitching, defense, baserunning… They deserve for beating us.
 
"I was encouraged to see our bullpen pitch well today.  I thought Griffin [Tubbs], Carl [Holmes] and John [Kopicky] all threw very well.  
 
"We put ourselves in a hole early in both games, and it's tough to manage that tactically.  You really need to come up with some big hits in those situations—which is something we've done a lot of this year—but that didn't happen tonight.  We'll just have to move forward."  -Coach Brian Reitnour
 
Next Time Out:
Houghton returns to action on Friday evening at 5:00 p.m. when they take on the #18 St. John Fisher Cardinals at the Kerr-Pegula Athletic Complex.