Raptors take final game of Rochester series on strength of back-to-back HRs

On Senior Day with his parents watching, Alec Montecalvo hit the HR that put Bard ahead for good in Game Two.

ANNANDALE-ON-HUDSON, N.Y. - It's been a difficult baseball season for Bard College. There's really no other way to put it.

On Sunday, when Rochester walked off with a 6-5 victory in Game One of a Liberty League doubleheader, it was the Raptors' seventh straight defeat, and their 10th one-run loss of 2016. Ouch.

There's been a sense of anticipation all spring, however - an expectation - that something was going to happen that would turn things around. Hopefully that's what happened in Game Two.

Trailing 5-3 in the top of the seventh, the Raptors scored four times with two outs, including
back-to-back home runs by Alec Montecalvo and Adam Carafotes, and went on to salvage the final game of the four-game series, 10-5.

Rochester is 17-13 overall, 10-6 in the Liberty League and still battling for a playoff spot. Bard is 9-23 overall, 4-12 in the Liberty and trying to finish with a flourish, the way they did in 2015, when they won six of their last seven.

In Game One, Bard scored unearned runs in the fifth and sixth to tie the game at 5-5, but Rochester won it on an error, two bunts, then a single to center by Aiden Finch (Los Gatos, CA).

Carafotes went 2-for-3 with a double and two RBI; Julian Gonzalez added two hits.

Game Two looked like it was going to come down to the wire as well. Bard trailed, 5-3, going into the top of the seventh, and with two outs, lightning struck.

Gonzalez led off with a bunt single and eventually was on third with two outs. After a pitching change, JP Fisher singled to plate Gonzalez and make it 5-4. Montecalvo, the team's only senior, followed with a homer off the scoreboard in left to make it 6-5, and two pitches later, Carafotes homered to left and it was 7-5.

The whole turnaround was made even more electrifying by the fact that Montecalvo's parents, Rich and Dawn, had come from Florida to see the games. Even though Bard has two home games left on the schedule, Senior Day for Montecalvo was held Sunday because his parents were on campus.

But the four-run outburst didn't end the game. Rochester came right back in the bottom of the seventh and loaded the bases with no outs. After a pair of singles to open the inning against reliever Frank Ortega, Bard went to reliever Alex Bunnell, and he walked the first batter he faced. But Bunnell worked his way out of it with a grounder that led to a force out at home, a pop-up in the infield, and a flyout.

The Raptors tacked on an unearned run in the eighth and two unearned runs in the ninth, and the losing streak was history.

Fisher (1-2) got the win after giving up four earned over six innings; Bunnell picked up his second save with three innings of one-hit relief. Montecalvo went 2-for-5 with three RBI; Carafotes went 2-for-4 with two RBI; Gonzalez went 4-for-5 with a stolen base and three runs scored; and Fisher went 2-for-3 with two walks, two RBI, four stolen bases and two runs scored.

The Raptors will split home-and-home doubleheaders with Skidmore next weekend, the first two in Saratoga on Saturday. Live Stats will be available for that twinbill; Sunday's doubleheader at Bard will offer Live Stats and Live Video.

Recap, photo courtesy of Bard College