GENEVA, N.Y.—The Hobart College baseball team got seven innings and six strikeouts from starting pitcher Alex Marancik, but visiting Clarkson University scored four unearned runs in the first inning on its way to a 6-1 Liberty League win at McDonough Park this afternoon.
 
Playing its first home in 27 years, the Statesmen welcomed baseball alum Jeff Zornow '78 and former President Joyce Jacobsen, who reinstated baseball, to throw out the ceremonial first pitch.
 
Hobart (2-7) managed only one hit in the game, an RBI single by Jackson Fowle in the bottom of the fourth.
 
Clarkson (2-8) got seven hits in the game, including home runs by Kent Wilson and Colby Brouillette.
 
With two on and two out in the top of the first, Marancik induced a ground ball to third base that should have ended the inning, but the throw to second went into right field allowing two runs to score. Wilson doubled the lead with a two-run homer to right center giving the Golden Knights a 4-0 lead after half an inning.
 
The Golden Knights starter, Derrick Lewis, held the Statesmen hitless but loaded the bases in the fourth before yielding to Tommy DiFranco. Fowle greeted DiFranco with the run scoring single, but the relay from rightfield cut down the second Statesmen attempting to score and he got out of the inning without allowing another run. DiFranco pitched the final five and two-thirds innings to earn the win.
 
Brouillette hit a solo homer to right in the top of the fifth. Wilson scored the final run of the game in the eighth. He led off the inning with a triple and then scored on a wild pitch.
 
Hobart and Clarkson will continue their weekend series with a doubleheader tomorrow beginning at 1 p.m. at Auburn's Falcon Park.