The Hobart baseball team fell to the Rochester Institute of Technology 17-5 in the championship game of the Liberty League Tournament on Saturday at the RIT Baseball Complex.
The Statesmen forced the winner-take-all final earlier in the day by defeating the Tigers 17-6.
Senior Christian Petry recorded three hits, scored twice, and turned in a pair of highlight-reel defensive plays. Junior Sean Garvin continued his strong postseason, collecting three hits, including two doubles and a triple, while driving in three runs.
RIT broke the game open with a six-run fourth inning. Hobart had trimmed the deficit to 7-5 on Garvin’s two-run double in the top half of the inning before the Tigers answered with a surge that included two-run doubles from Max Matteucci and Evan Kurtz.
Hobart struck first by taking advantage of an RIT error in the opening inning to score two unearned runs. Petry led off with a single and later scored when sophomore Jack Farnen reached on an error. First-year Quinn Dashefsky added a bases-loaded walk to make it 2-0.
RIT answered with three runs in the bottom of the first, but Garvin’s RBI triple in the second tied the game at 3-3. The Tigers regained the lead for good later in the inning on an RBI single by Jackson Rusiecki.
Petry provided a defensive spark in the second inning with a leaping catch on a soft liner in shallow outfield before firing to first to complete an inning-ending double play. In the sixth, he made a diving stop up the middle and threw to second for another out.
Hobart also got a standout defensive play from Byrnes, who robbed Matteucci of an extra-base hit with a running catch in right-center field near the fence.
Garvin’s two doubles gave him 17 on the season, breaking the Hobart single-season record of 15 set by John Hogan in 1988.
RIT improved to 24-13 and secured the Liberty League’s automatic berth into the NCAA Tournament. Hobart, now 30-13, awaits word on a possible at-large bid. The Statesmen entered the day ranked No. 44 in the NCAA Power Index. The 64-team NCAA Tournament field will be announced Monday at noon on ncaa.com.
