ROCHESTER, N.Y. -- The Allegheny College baseball team swung the bats well in a twin bill Saturday against the University of Rochester, but it wasn't enough to prevent defeat as the Yellow Jackets prevailed by scores of 13-12 and 10-8.

Allegheny (5-7) outhit Rochester (3-6) in the two games combined, but those efforts at the dish couldn't bail out the Gators. Eight different players ended the day with multiple hits, and the Gators had more total hits (26-to-22), extra-base hits (11-to-7), and RBIs (20-to-17). The pitching staff even had a lower ERA for the afternoon, but nine errors across both contests proved costly.

Rochester 13, Allegheny 7
The two sides scored runs in bunches in the series opener, totaling 10 apiece through the first six innings. In the second inning, Matt Jennings (Birmingham, Mich./Brother Rice) connected on a grand slam that put Allegheny ahead 6-1. In the fourth, a three-run shot from Tyler Skaggs (Champion Heights, Ohio/Champion) kept the Gators out in front by a comfortable 10-5 lead. 

The pesky Yellow Jackets added two runs in the fourth, two in the fifth, and one in the sixth inning to even the score at 10-all. But that was just the beginning of the action, as all the remaining runs circled the bases on homers. Nick Banez (Edmonds, Wash./Meadowdale) hit a two-run home run in the eighth to put Allegheny back on top, 12-10. In the ninth, Rochester catcher Jack Corcoran led off with a solo homer, and outfielder Josh Leadem followed up with a two-run, walk-off blast to complete the comeback.

Rochester 10, Allegheny 8
The storyline in the nightcap was similar to the opener. Allegheny struck first and lit up the scoreboard early, but Rochester orchestrated a late-inning comeback to steal the victory.

Tommy Landsnes (Richmond, Va./Brunswick Academy) led off the game with a triple and scored on a Jennings sac fly as the Gators grabbed a one-run advantage in the first inning. That lead ballooned to 7-0 with a six-spot in the third. The biggest play of the inning was a bases-clearing, three-run double off the bat of William Wolff (Naples, Fla./Gulf Coast). Banez added another extra-base knock with an RBI triple, and it looked as though Allegheny might run away with the late game.

Alas, two errors in the bottom of the third allowed the Yellow Jackets to plate four unearned runs. It was the beginning of another come-from-behind win for the hosts from the U of R. Rochester took advantage of another error in the sixth with a double and triple in back-to-back at-bats, and a solo homer in the seventh tied the score at 8-8. A two-out error in the bottom of the eighth allowed the go-ahead runs to reach home plate on what should have been a grounder to short for the third out.

Inside the Box Score: Game 1

• Allegheny scored 12 runs on a game-high 15 hits.
• The Gator batters did their part with two doubles, one triple, and three home runs.
• Rochester earned the walk-off win with 13 runs on 13 hits, including two homers in the ninth.
• Jennings, Landsnes, and Garrett Lienhard (Jim Thorpe, Pa./Jim Thorpe) each had a team-high three hits.
• Jennings led all players with five RBIs, four of which came on a grand slam in the second inning.
• Skaggs went 2-for-5 with one double, one homer, and three RBIs.
• Allegheny starting pitcher Mark Schweickert (Richmond, Va./John Randolph Tucker) was tagged with seven runs (six earned) and struck out three in 4.0 innings.
• In the ninth spot, Rochester's Corcoran was 5-for-5 with one home run, three RBIs, and three runs.
• Rochester reliever Thomas Blaydes earned the win on the mound with 1.1 scoreless innings.

Inside the Box Score: Game 2

• Allegheny outhit Rochester in the nightcap, 11-to-9.
• The Yellow Jackets, on the other hand, committed only one error to Allegheny's five.
• Seven Gators had at least one hit, led by Landsnes, Skaggs, Banez, and Alejandro Samayoa (Katonah, N.Y./John Jay Cross River) with two apiece.
• Wolff finished 1-for-4 with a team-leading three RBIs, all scoring on his third-inning double.
• Banez drove in multiple runs, going 2-for-4 with one double, one triple, and two RBIs.
• Walker Cunningham (Cambridge Springs, Pa./Cambridge Springs) had the best outing of the four starting pitchers on Saturday, logging 5.2 innings of work with five strikeouts.
• Only two of the seven runs charged to Cunningham were earned.
• Benjamin Garber, also batting ninth for Rochester, led his team with a 4-for-4 performance at the plate.
• For the Yellow Jackets, Zach Herzog received the win with 3.1 innings of relief without a run surrendered.

News and Notes

• Allegheny and Rochester met for the second year in a row after going more than two decades without playing each other between 1999 and 2024.
• In each of the last two seasons, the home team in the series swept the doubleheader between the Gators and Yellow Jackets.
• Rochester moved ahead in the all-time series by a single game, 6-5.
• Allegheny's three home runs in the early game tied its single-game season-high in 2025.
• Skaggs and Tyson Bryant-Dawson (Oakland, Calif./Manvel (Texas)) extended their on-base streaks to a team-leading 10 consecutive games.
• In his last three games, Banez has four hits: one double, one triple, and his first two collegiate home runs.
• Jennings' grand slam was his first home run of the season and the second of his Allegheny career.

Up Next
The Gators open their Presidents' Athletic Conference (PAC) schedule with a doubleheader at Waynesburg University on Saturday, March 22, beginning at 1:00 p.m.