Bard Raptors

Box Score 1 | Box Score 2
BRONX, N.Y. - The coaching staff had never coached a game together before. The team's uniforms had never been worn. The smallish roster is made up of recruited players and other student-athletes who were members of the club team.

They don't have a home field yet. They've been practicing in the gymnasium and hitting off of tees, and they hadn't been on an baseball field since the fall.

But the Bard College baseball team swept a doubleheader against Yeshiva University on Sunday afternoon in the Bronx, making a splash in their return to varsity status for the first time since the spring of 1937.

"I'm going to say that I knew they had it in them," said Bard head coach Ed Kahovec, "but I didn't realize that they would perform well in pressure situations so early in the season. It was awesome."

The Raptors (2-0) won the first game, 4-3, and the second game, 7-0.

In the first game, Tom Danz led off with a single and scored on an RBI single by Ryan Conklin. Alec Montecalvo followed with an RBI single, and Bard led, 2-0, after the top of the first inning.

Yeshiva (0-3) had tied the game at 2-2 by the fifth inning, but Bard rallied with two outs. Nolan Reece hit a two-out single, stole second, then scored on a single by Cooper Roberts. Another two-out hit, this one by Tyler Emel, gave Bard a 4-2 lead in the sixth.

Yeshiva had cut the lead to 4-3 and had runners on second and third with two outs, but Emel struck out the next Yeshiva batter, earning the save. Montecalvo picked up the win, striking out six over five innings.

Game 2 was all about Ryan Conklin. The freshman struck out 14 and threw a one-hitter, throwing 91 pitches with one walk in seven innings.

"He was extremely efficient," Kahovec said of Conklin. "He went right after them and didn't let them off the hook. He didn't get into too many deep counts."

For the second straight game, Bard jumped out to an early lead. Danz led off the game with a double and scored on another Conklin RBI single; Emel tripled to drive in Conklin, and Steve Kovalcik hit a run-scoring single to give Bard a 3-0 lead. The Raptors added four more runs in the fourth and backed Conklin with excellent defense; the Raptors made one error on the day.

"We played fundamentally sound baseball," Kahovec said. "(Emel) played a terrific shortstop today. (Danz) was calm, cool and collected out there.

"We had a great time," Kahovec continued. "We had high energy, a lot of focus ... they played with determination that they were there to get a job done."

The Raptors will host a pair of a doubleheaders over the weekend at Dutchess Stadium in Wappingers Falls, N.Y. Bard will host Houghton College on Saturday and Baruch College on Sunday; both twinbills begin at 1 p.m.

You can follow the action from all four games right here via Live Stats.