ELMIRA, N.Y. -- The Elmira College baseball team has its eyes set on last year's Empire 8 Conference Tournament Champions, the Bombers of Ithaca College, who will make the short trip down Route 13 to historic Dunn Field to face the Soaring Eagles in a three-game set this weekend. The conference series begins on Saturday, April 8, with a doubleheader beginning at 1:00 p.m.

LAST TIME OUT
The Soaring Eagles picked up a 3-2 walk-off victory against Wells College at historic Dunn Field on April 5 to snap a brief two-game skid. Elmira native Dylan Bellinger '17 played hero in his hometown ballpark, as the graduate of nearby Thomas A. Edison High School drove in the winning run on a two-out single up the middle, which allowed Sam Plaugher '20 to trot home with ease from third base. After scoring twice in the second inning, the Purple and Gold led for nearly the entire game, until the Express knotted the score at 2-2 with an unearned run in the top of the ninth. Dylan Nolan reached on a one-out error, before moving to second on a wild pitch. A bad-hop base hit moved Nolan up 90 feet to third base, and he came around to score on another wild pitch. Elmira's Nick Sampogna '18 got out of the jam by fanning Mike Diehr to end the ninth. In the home half of the ninth, Plaugher led off with a soft liner into center field. He would advance to second on a wild pitch, reach third on a groundout, before scoring the winning run on Bellinger's clutch two-out base knock. Joe Kidd '18 started on the mound for Elmira and threw a strong 6.0 innings. He allowed just one run on two hits, while striking out four en route to the no decision. Bellinger and Conor Bawiec '18 paced the Soaring Eagles at the plate by recording three hits apiece.

WALK-OFF WINNERS
Wednesday's win over Wells marked the second walk-off victory for the Soaring Eagles this season. EC's first such victory came in the nightcap of a doubleheader against Utica College on March 25, when Dennis Rudolph '18 drove in the game-winner on with a two-out single. Ironically, Plaugher, who entered as a pinch runner, scored the winning run against the Pioneers, and back in 2015 it was Sampogna who received the win with 1.1 innings out of the bullpen.

COLEGROVE'S COMEBACK
During Elmira's inaugural season in 2015, southpaw Anthony Colegrove '18 made eight appearances out of the bullpen, but injury forced him to miss his entire sophomore campaign. Now healthy, the Hoboken, New Jersey, native is off to a tremendous start to his junior season. Colegrove, typically used as a lefty specialist, has surrendered just one hit in 1.2 scoreless innings. He made his third appearance of the season against Wells on Wednesday and fanned the only batter he faced.

HEY BATTER, BATTER
After a year in which the Elmira offense finished second in the Empire 8 Conference in batting average (.298), the Soaring Eagles have continued to tear the cover off of the ball in 2017. EC ranks third in the league with a .305 batting average and second with a .427 on-base percentage. Elmira also boasts three of the conference's top-10 leading hitters, as Bellinger ranks third in batting average at .447, followed by Conor Bawiec '18 in sixth (.365) and Cameron Heggie '18 in seventh place (.360). Bellinger has also climbed into second in the E8 in on-base percentage at .526.

ITHACA AT A GLANCE
Head Coach George Valesente is one of the most recognizable names in the Division III coaching ranks, thanks to a nearly four-decade long tradition of success at Ithaca. Widely recognized as a traditional power in the New York region, Ithaca has flirted with the national polls and has received votes on a few occasions this season. However, with their most recent loss to The College at Brockport on April 5, the Bombers have fallen to 9-7 overall. Inside Empire 8 play, they sit 2-2 after dropping a one-run game to then-nationally ranked St. John Fisher, and winning two-of-three against Stevens Institute of Technology. Not only did the Bombers return a hefty portion of their lineup from a year ago, the pitching staff retooled with a pair of Division I transfers. Jake Binder, a sophomore from Fairfield University, has started a team-leading five games and owns an unblemished 3-0 record on the mound, although his ERA is 4.85 and he's walked more (12) than he's struck out (11). Jack Morello began his collegiate career at Glendale Community College in Glendale, California, before transferring to St. John's University. Now a Bomber, Morello has made four starts and paces the squad with 26 strikeouts, and his 3.09 ERA is the lowest among Ithaca's starting pitchers. Despite these additions to the roster, the team as a whole ranks fourth in the seven-team E8 with a 6.65 ERA and fifth with a .304 batting average by the opposition.

SERIES HISTORY
The Bombers have gotten the best of the Soaring Eagles in the first two seasons of the Route 13 rivalry. Ithaca has won the series in each of the past two years, resulting in a 6-0 record against EC. Five of the six meetings have taken place in Ithaca, New York, with one of those games being played at Cornell University's Hoy Field back in 2015. In the only previous matchup at Dunn Field on April 20, 2016, the Bombers doubled up EC, 12-6.
 
LOOKING AHEAD
Elmira and Ithaca will return to Dunn Field to conclude their Empire 8 series on Sunday, April 9, with a 1:00 p.m. first pitch. That marks the end of EC's season-long five-game homestand, as the following weekend, the Soaring Eagles travel to Hoboken, New Jersey, to take on Stevens Institute of Technology in a three-game E8 set. The series with the Ducks will begin with a doubleheader on Friday, April 14, at 4:00 p.m.