Crunch fall in Game 3, Palmer is NAC pitcher of the year; more news

Crunch fall to Rocket, 4-1, in Game 3

The Syracuse Crunch fell to the Laval Rocket, 4-1, in Game 3 tonight at Place Bell.

The loss gives the Rocket a 2-1 edge in the best-of-five North Division Semifinals series.

Goaltender Max Lagace turned aside 23-of-25 shots between the pipes for the Crunch. Cayden Primeau stopped 22-of-23 in net for the Rocket. The Crunch were unable to convert on two power play opportunities while Laval went 2-for-7.

The Rocket were first on the board with a power play goal 2:43 into the game. Sami Niku set up Danick Martel for a backdoor one-timer from the bottom of the right circle.

Syracuse evened the score at the 4:49 mark of the second period. After Lagace made a save, Darren Raddysh grabbed the

loose puck and sent it ahead for Remi Elie. He skated it into the zone and beat Primeau with a hard slap shot from the left circle.

Laval regained the lead with another power-play goal 8:49 into the third period. Cedric Paquette was down low to tip in a rightwing shot from Jean-sébastien Dea. The Rocket then added empty net goals from Dea and Louie Belpedio in the final minutes to secure the win.

Raiders Beat Army, Fall to Lehigh in Doubleheader

Colgate fought off elimination with a 1-0 victory over Army before the season came to an end with a 5-1 loss to Lehigh in a second-round doubleheader Friday at BU Softball Field.

GAME 1 | COLGATE 1, ARMY 0

Colgate rode another dominant pitching performance from Bailey Misken to stave off elimination in the first game of the day. The junior pitcher scattered seven hits over seven scoreless frames for her second career Patriot League tournament win and seventh complete game of the season.

The Raiders scratched an early run to play with the lead. Elizabeth Nitka popped a double to left field, advanced to third on a groundout by Rebecca Johnson, and scored on an opposite-field RBI single by Jillian Herbst in the top of the third.

Misken stranded two runners in scoring position in the third and then set down the next six Black Knights to carry the lead to the sixth. Army threatened with two more in scoring position in the sixth, but back-to-back infield popouts kept it a one-run lead.

Misken bounced back from a leadoff single in the seventh and worked backto-back shallow fly ball outs to cap off the 1-0 shutout victory.

Nitka paced Colgate offensively with two hits.

GAME 2 | LEHIGH 5, COLGATE 1

Lehigh plated two runs in each of the first two innings to build an early lead. Jaelynn Chesson got the Mountain Hawks on the board with a two-run home run in the top of the first, and Rory Dudley added an RBI single in the second to pull in front 4-1 after two innings.

Colgate’s run came off the bat of Steph Jacoby, who cranked an RBI double to straightaway center in the home half of the first. Herbst scored on the double, but unfortunately, that would be Colgate’s final scoring production.

Misken gave the Raiders three innings in the circle and allowed four runs on five hits. Kaitlyn Borruso kept Colgate in the game, scattering one run on five hits in four strong innings of relief. An RBI single in the fifth stretched Lehigh’s lead to 5-1, and that proved to be the final score.

Jacoby, Johnson, and Quinn Livesay had Colgate’s hits in the nightcap.

FROM THE SOURCE HEAD COACH MARISSA LAMISON-MYERS

“I am so incredibly proud of how our team battled this week. I have so much love for this group and our senior class. They gave everything they had to this program, and I am forever grateful. The future is extremely bright for this program, and there is no doubt we will be back.”

Wyatt Palmer named NAC pitcher of the year

The North Atlantic Conference (NAC) announced

today that SUNY Cobleskill junior Wyatt Palmer, Camden, N.Y., Camden High School/cayuga Community College, has been named the conference’s 2022 NAC Baseball Pitcher-of-the-year. The right-handed starter earned ALL-NAC Western Division Team honors during the season while being named the league’s Pitcher-of-theweek four times during the year. He becomes the first Fighting Tiger pitcher in program history to earn NAC Pitcher-of-the-year honors.

During the season became the ace of the Fighting Tiger pitching staff this year as the transfer from Cayuga Community College posted a 7-2 record in nine starts to lead all NAC pitchers in victories with a 2.86 ERA in 50.1 innings of work, hurling a pair of complete games including a nine-inning shutout. The Camden, N.Y. native held

opposing hitters to a .257 batting average on the year, striking out 33 hitters while walking 18.

Cobleskill Head Lance Ratchford believed the junior right-hander was the key to the team’s success because of his work on the mound throughout the year.

“Wyatt Palmer was dominant all year for us and became the ace of our pitching staff. He made an immediate impact on our rotation and really got better with every start. He understands how to pitch and what he has to do in order to be successful.”

During the 2022 season, Cobleskill posted their third consecutive winning season, a 21-20 overall record capturing the league’s Western Division Championship for the second consecutive season with an 11-4 conference mark while making their third conference post-season appearance in four years.