As April drew to a close, baseball was hopeful of joining softball and lacrosse in Liberty League playoffs, which start for all three sports in May.

Softball split a doubleheader with RIT (9–1, 0–1), then swept St. Lawrence (4–0, 4–3) to wrap up the No. 1 seed in the Liberty League playoffs. Rochester was ranked second in the Northeast Regional rankings done by the NCAA Division III Softball Championships Committee. Brittany Grage ’15 was among the Division III leaders in home runs (14) and RBIs (54). She was hitting .434. Also leading the Yellowjackets in batting average were Shelby Corning ’17 (.414), Sarah Wayson ’15 (.372), and Lauren Muni ’16 (.382).

Baseball rode a school record 17-game winning streak to a mark of 24–11. As late April approached, Rochester was 15–5 in the Liberty League. The team stood out defensively, turning 45 double plays and throwing out 17 base stealers. A solid pitching staff was led by Josh Schulman ’15 (5–3, 2.61 ERA, 3 shutouts) and Evan Janifer ’16 (5–1, 1.91 ERA, 2 shutouts, one save). Four were hitting .341 or higher: Jake Meyerson ’16 (.402), Tyler Schmidt ’18 (.365), Sam Slutsky (.357), and Brian Munoz ’15 (.341). The top run producers were Nolan Schultz ’16 (33 RBIs) and Brendan Garry ’15 (7 HRs, 27 RBIs).

Lacrosse scored a dramatic 10-9 victory over RIT in the last game of the regular season to secure a Liberty League playoff bid. Madeline Levy ’18 scored with 46 seconds left to snap a 9–9 tie. The offense came from Jamie Wallisch ’17 (37 goals, 17 assists, 54 points), Lauren Basil ’15 (29–8–37), Mara Karpp ’17 (12–21–33), Elisabeth Watson ’16 (20–5–25), and Madeline Levy ’18 (20–4–24). In goal, Maire Prosak ’16 made 78 saves and had an 8.86 goals-against average.

Men’s and women’s outdoor track and field were prepping for the New York state championships at St. Lawrence in early May. Boubacar Diallo ’16 posted the second-longest triple jump in Division III this season when he cleared 48 feet, 9.5 inches (14.87 meters). That’s also the second-longest jump in Rochester’s history. The longest belongs to Anthony Palumbo ’74, ’84 (PhD), who cleared 49 feet, 11 inches (15.21 meters) in 1974. He won the NCAA Division III national championship that year. The women’s team was hopeful of building on a third-place finish at the ECAC indoor championships. Through mid-April, Rochester hit more than 10 ECAC qualifying marks. Alexandra Goldman ’15 qualified in both the discus throw and the shot put. Emily VanDenburgh ’16 qualified in the long jump. The 4-by-400-meter relay also qualified.

Men’s and women’s tennis played in the UAA championships in Florida. The men were led by Ian Baranowski ’16 with 17 singles wins. Johnny Baker ’17 and Julian Danko ’15 had 15 singles victories. Baranowski was the top winner in doubles. He was 16–8 teamed with Aaron Mevorach ’18. Danko and Ben Shapiro ’16 were 14–7.

The women beat seven of nine regional opponents and stood at 8–8 after a first-round loss in the UAA championships. The individual winners were Molly Goodman ’16 (17 singles wins), Christine Ho ’16 (12), and Dorothy Tai ’17 (10). Alex Wolkoff ’18 and Lauren Zickar ’17 had 12 doubles wins. Tai and Goodman had 10.

In golf, Rochester won the UAA team title by five strokes over Carnegie Mellon. Dominic Schumacher ’16 finished second overall. Luis Arteaga ’18 and Jona Scott ’17 finished fifth. All three earned first team all–UAA honors. The Yellowjackets hosted the Liberty League championships in late April. Schumacher earned first team honors and Arteaga and G. W. VanderZwaag ’16 were named to the second team.

During the last weekend of April, Rochester’s rowing team was competing in the Liberty League championships with an NCAA berth going to the league champion. The Yellowjackets were ranked as highly as No. 11 in Division III in mid-spring.

—Dennis O’Donnell