ELMIRA, N.Y. -- The Elmira College baseball team will continue play inside the Empire 8 Conference with a three-game set against Stevens Institute of Technology, beginning with a doubleheader on Friday, April 14. First pitch for the opening game is slated for 4:00 p.m. at Dobbelaar Field in Hoboken, New Jersey.

LAST TIME OUT: The Soaring Eagles split a conference doubleheader with the Bombers of Ithaca College on Sunday, April 9, at historic Dunn Field. EC won the opener, 3-2, in walk-off fashion by scoring two runs in the bottom of the seventh inning. Down 2-1, Elmira was issued a lead-off, four-pitch walk, putting the tying run on base. With two outs and Sam Plaugher '20 on third, Harrison Zambarano '19 nubbed a grounder to the right of the pitcher's mound, but IC closer Andrew Bailey couldn't field the ball cleanly, allowing Plaugher to touch home and level the score. The Soaring Eagles continued to rally with two outs, as Zambarano moved to third on a Will Jenkins '19 infield single and scored the winning run on a Bryce Plante '19 slow roller towards second base. The Bombers would get the last laugh, however, as they beat the Purple and Gold by a final score of 9-5 in the nightcap.

COMPLETE-GAME CONOR: In the walk-off win over Ithaca on Sunday afternoon – the first-ever victory for the Soaring Eagles in the all-time series versus the Bombers – Elmira received a dazzling performance on the mound from Conor Bawiec '18. The Empire 8 All-Conference utility man recovered from a lackluster start in his previous pitching performance and scattered two runs on four hits and four walks while striking out four. Perhaps just as important in what ended up being a slim one-run win was his two successful pick offs, which erased a pair of two-out runners at first and ended the top of the third and sixth innings. After the game, Head Coach Corey Paluga stated that he was more impressed with Bawiec's complete game against the Bombers than the 9.0 innings he tossed in his first start of the season, a 2-1 triumph over Rutgers-Camden on February 25.

GOODBYE, BASEBALL: Through the first 16 games of the 2017 campaign, the Soaring Eagles have slugged six homers, two each from Dylan Bellinger '17 and Dennis Rudolph '18, and one from both Nate Hanner '18 and Justin Iannotto '20. These figures may not be eye-popping, especially considering this weekend's opponent has a league-high 19 dingers this season, but Elmira is on pace to shatter its single-season home run record. The Soaring Eagles already have more long balls than their inaugural 2015 campaign, in which they hit five, and need only one more to tie last year's total of seven. Bellinger was the latest EC batsman to go yard, as the slugging first baseman hit the ninth homer of his career in the 3-2 defeat of Ithaca on Sunday.

SCOUTING STEVENS: The 2017 campaign has been an up-and-down one for the Ducks, who are an even .500 with a 13-13-1 overall record. On Saturday, April 8, Stevens split an E8 twin bill with SUNY Canton by identical 5-4 scores, and the following afternoon, it topped nationally-ranked Alvernia University, 5-3. However, it their most recent game on Wednesday, the Ducks were walloped by Farmingdale State, 14-4. The Ducks have some pop in their bats, as they lead the Empire 8 with 19 home runs. Although their power is impressive, they rank last in the league batting average (.244) and own the most strikeouts (182). Making up for the lack of thorough offense has been one of most the dynamic pitching staffs in the conference. Stevens' batting average against (.249) is the lowest in the Empire 8 and it ranks second in ERA (3.88), thanks mostly to a breakout season by sophomore Danny Poidomani. As a freshman, Poidomani threw just 10.0 innings in 10 appearances out of the bullpen. Now a year wiser, the second-year southpaw boasts the second-lowest ERA in the E8 (2.25) and the most strikeouts (67) in a league-leading 52.0 innings.

SERIES HISTORY: Stevens had the upper hand in its first two seasons competing against the Soaring Eagles, as the Ducks have won all six previous games. However, Elmira came close to clipping the Ducks' wings in two of the three contests in 2016. The series opener was a mere 1-0 game through the first five innings, before Stevens tacked on two in the sixth en route to a 3-0 win. In the finale, the Purple and Gold battled back to take an 8-7 lead in the sixth, but a seven-run 10th inning allowed the Ducks to prevail, 15-10, in extra innings.

LOOKING AHEAD: Following the league series against the Ducks, Elmira will travel to Alfred, New York, for a non-conference bout against the Pioneers of Alfred State College on Tuesday, April 18. The nine-inning game will begin promptly at 3:00 p.m.