Knights Walk Off With Pair of Wins Over Union

Garrett Russell (right) is congratulated by Chris Falteisek (#7) after his solo home run in the first inning of game two against Union on Saturday. - Photo by Gary Mikel

Potsdam, NY - Junior David Kinney (Mexico, NY) hit a walk off grand slam in the bottom of the 12th inning and four pitchers combined to allow just a single earned run in 19 innings as the Clarkson University Baseball team took a doubleheader from Union College, 6-2 and 8-0, Saturday afternoon at Jack Phillips Stadium.

The Golden Knights improved to 12-6 on the season and 8-2 in Liberty League games in 2011, while Union fell to 5-8 and 2-4. The two teams will play again on Sunday, with the doubleheader beginning at 11:00 am.

Clarkson and Union battled for 12 innings in game one of the doubleheader, five more frames than the scheduled seven innings. The Knights scored one in the fourth inning as Pete Lasecki (Stratford, CT) singled home Dan Lenney (Clifton Park, NY) to five Clarkson a 1-0 advantage. Union picked up an unearned run in the top of the sixth and then Anthony Cassesse homered to right to take a 2-1 lead. Down to their final three outs, the Knights were able to respond with a homer by Lasecki to left.

From there, the two teams went back and forth with relief pitchers, but the key was Kinney coming off the corner again to get the Knights out of a jam. In the top of the 10th inning, the bases were loaded with two outs and Kinney induced a groundball for a forceout. In the 11th, Kinney struck out the side and then took care of three more hitters in the 12th. In the bottom of the inning, runners were on first and third with one out and Union chose to intentionally walk David Wixted (Ballston Lake, NY), bringing up Kinney. The junior took a first pitch ball and then dropped the barrell on a fastball and ripped a grand slam to win the game.

Kinney went 3-for-6 with four RBIs and Lasecki was 2-for-5 with a pair driven in. For Union, Dylan Katz-Wicks was 2-for-6 and Tyler Heck went 2-for-5.

Game two didn't have the fans sitting on pins and needles the way the opener did, as Clarkson scored four in the bottom of the first inning. Jerry Coleman (Potsdam, NY) ripped a three-run shot off the scoreboard, and two batters later Garrett Russell (Lake George, NY) hit an opposite field bomb to make it 4-0. Wixted drove in a run on a sacrifice fly in the second inning to make it 5-0. Closing out the scoring, Coleman ripped an opposite field double to plate a pair, and then came zipping around the bases to score on an overthrow for the final 8-0 tally.

Senior Alex Giovannone (New Hartford, NY) settled down after a rough first inning and scattered six hits over seven innings to earn the complete-game shutout victory. He struck out five, including the side in the top of the seventh.

Coleman went 3-for-4 with five RBIs and a pair of runs scored in game two, while Dan Lenney went 3-for-4. For Union, Heck was 2-for-2 with a walk.

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