The Le Moyne men’s baseball squad came to play in their final weekend of the regular season, knocking out American International from the Northeast-10 Conference Championship tournament with a three-game sweep.

While all three games, played at Dick Rockwell Field at Le Moyne, were tightly-contested, Le Moyne prevailed for the third seed in the Southwest Division of the conference. Le Moyne ended the regular season with a 13-9 record against other conference teams.

Junior Ryan Davis led the Dolphin charge in Friday afternoon’s contest, pitching eight strong innings and giving up no earned runs. The lefty added seven strikeouts to help secure the 4-3 win.

On the offensive side, Le Moyne scored to quick runs in the first inning on senior Nate Reynolds’ two-run single to left center, scoring sophomores Trey West and Pat Wright. However, AI came right back to add two unearned runs in the top of the second inning to tie the score.

AI took the lead in the fourth on an RBI single, another unearned run for the Yellow Jackets. But Le Moyne came right back, as freshman Donato DiNorcia scored West once again on an RBI single.

With scoring concluding in the fifth inning on a sacrifice fly by sophomore Brett Charbonneau, the Davis took care of the rest for the ‘Phins. With strong pitching heading into the ninth, junior Conor Nolan took over to earn his second save of the season.

With a 4-3 win under their belts, two more games were on the line for spots in the conference tournament. If the ‘Phins won at least one of these following games, they would be guaranteed a spot in the conference tournament. However, losing both would result in their spot being taken by the Yellow Jackets.

With much on the line, the first game put the ball in the hands of Le Moyne freshman pitching phenom Damian Powers to take care of business.

The game remained scoreless until the fourth inning, where Le Moyne took advantage of an American International balk, scoring Wright for their first run of the game.

An overall quiet game, the Yellow Jackets staged a late-game comeback on a solo home run in the top of the ninth off Powers by Tyler Geffert. Geffert also stole a home run from Wright in the first inning with a stellar defensive play.

With the game tied heading into the bottom of the ninth, the Dolphins took advantage of an AI error to load the bases, setting up a walk-off hit-by-pitch to Reynolds.

The walk-off excitement carried over into the nightcap, as the Hill Crew came out in full force to cheer on the ‘Phins in their final home game.

Tied 1-1 in the second inning, the Yellow Jackets pulled ahead, adding three more runs in the fourth and one more in the fifth to take the 5-1 lead. However, the ‘Phins refused to go down without a fight. Reynolds launched his fifth home run of the season over the left field fence for a two-run shot that brought the score within 5-3 in the bottom of the sixth.

“It felt great,” Reynolds said of his monster shot.. “I think every kid wants to end their college career with hitting a home run so it was pretty cool to be able to do that.”

Still down two runs, the Dolphins took advantage of two errors to tie the game in the eighth. Reynolds knocked in West with an RBI double and then scored on a throwing error to bring the game to 5-5.

With a quiet ninth inning on both ends, extra baseball began during a downpour. The Dolphins and Yellow Jackets traded scoreless innings up until the 14th, when the ‘Phins plated the final run for their second-straight walk-off. Reynolds again brought in the winning run, scoring Charbonneau on a single to bring in his 27th RBI of the season.

Sweeping American International allows the Dolphins to enter the conference tournament with some confidence.

“It’s going to give us some momentum going into the playoffs which is a huge thing because you want to go in playing your best,” team captain Reynolds said. “Even though the last two games we kind of started out slow, getting into the playoffs you have to grind out wins.”

As Reynolds and the squad prepare for their upcoming games in the playoffs, they look back at how far they’ve come, finishing off the season with a 19-22 record after a tough start down south.

“I think part of it is just a maturation process because we are definitely a young team,” Reynolds said. “You learn how to grind it out because eventually it becomes just as much mental as it is physical. Everyone’s tired and you just have to learn to play through that fatigue.”

Reynolds and the Dolphins will face New Haven at Connecticut this Wednesday for the first round of the NE-10 Conference Championships.