After a tough start to the season for Fordham Baseball, they sat at 2-7 going into a four-game stretch this past week.
The Rams began their week with a rainy home game on Wednesday, March 6, against Marist College. The Red Foxes got on the board early with a first-inning run off Fordham’s opener freshman Aidan Dowd. In the bottom of the frame, the Rams manufactured a run of their own to tie the game 1-1 early on. With two outs in the inning, sophomore Daniel Bucciero singled, stole second and scored on graduate student Andrew Kanellis’ single.
Marist threatened in the third inning, with runners on the corners and two outs. However, junior catcher Diego Prieto nabbed the runner, attempting to steal second to stop the rally and keep the score tied. The Fordham bullpen held the score at one apiece going into the sixth inning before the Red Foxes broke the tie with a double and a single in the inning.
In the eighth inning, Marist tacked on two more runs to make the game 4-1, which ended up being the final score. The Marist pitching stifled the Fordham offense as they struggled to get going after the first-inning run, only managing two more hits the rest of the game. The Rams did manage to bring the tying run to the plate in the ninth inning after two walks and two outs but were unsuccessful in sending the game to extra innings.
After the home loss, next up was a weekend series against the College of William and Mary in Williamsburg, Va. Due to poor weather scheduled on Saturday, the Rams started the weekend off with a doubleheader on Friday.
Game one was a scoreless pitcher’s duel through the first three innings of play. In the fourth, Fordham threatened with two in scoring position, but were unable to drive either in. In the bottom of the frame, William and Mary broke the zero-zero tie with a solo shot from Nate Goranson. Fordham again put a runner into scoring position in the fifth but was again unable to capitalize on the opportunity.
The score remained 1-0 going into the sixth when Goranson came up with one on and hit another home run to make it 3-0. William and Mary extended the lead to 5-0 in the seventh, the score the game would end in. Although Fordham was shut out, they had their fair share of opportunities, but went 0-14 with runners in scoring position.
In game two, the Rams finally cashed in on a scoring opportunity in the first inning. Senior Ryan Thiesse started the game off with a double down the right field line, which was followed by a single to right by Bucciero to put runners on the corners. Back-to-back strikeouts put Fordham in jeopardy of missing out on another golden opportunity. However, Kanellis came up with two outs and runners in scoring position after Bucciero stole second and knocked them both in with another single to right, giving the Rams an early 2-0 lead.
William and Mary put runners on in the first two innings, but Fordham made the pitches when it mattered most to prevent them from scoring any runs.
The third inning began with consecutive hit-by-pitches, first to Bucciero and then to graduate student Steve Luttazi. After Bucciero stole third, Kanellis drove him in with a sacrifice fly to left, pushing the Fordham lead to 3-0. William and Mary got two back in the third to make it a 3-2 ballgame. They followed that up with three in the fourth to take the lead 5-3.
In the fifth, with the Rams now down two, cut the lead in half with a Kanellis single that scored Bucciero. Fordham put together a rally in the sixth inning to first tie and then regain the lead. Senior Nico Boza led off the inning with a double, he was moved to third on junior Diego Prieto’s sacrifice bunt and scored on a Thiesse single up the middle to tie the game. After Thiesse stole second and advanced to third on an error, Bucciero drove in Thiesse with an RBI groundout to give the Rams a 6-5 lead.
Unfortunately, that would be the last time Fordham scored in the game, and after William and Mary scored three in the seventh to retake the lead, the back-and-forth affair ended. Tacking on two more in the eighth for good measure, William and Mary went on to win the game 10-6.
Looking to salvage the series and avoid being swept, they went into the final game of the season. The offense broke out in a big way with 17 runs.
The offensive barrage began in the third inning, with the bases loaded, Bucciero knocked in the first run of the day on an RBI groundout. After a walk to reload the bases, Luttazi drove in two more with a double. In the bottom of the frame, William and Mary snapped back with a solo homer to make it a 3-1 game early on. The game remained that score until the fifth inning, when William and Mary scratched across a second run.
In the top of the sixth, Fordham’s offense put together a two-out rally. Senior Chris Genaro singled, advanced to second on a passed ball and scored on junior Cian Sahler’s single. After a pitching change, Boza came up with one runner on and homered to right center. In the bottom of the sixth, William and Mary put together a rally of their own, scoring five in the inning and taking their first lead of the game, 7-6.
The Ram offense did not go quietly, fighting right back in the seventh. They tied and retook the lead on two hit-by-pitches, first to junior T.J. Wachter and then to Genaro. Sahler followed that up with another run-scoring single to make the game 9-7.
Fordham’s offensive outburst continued in the eighth. After Bucciero reached on an error, Kanellis homered to right center. The Rams loaded the bases and subsequently scored on a fielder’s choice and two singles. They capped off the scoring outbreak with a sacrifice fly and an RBI single in the ninth. The game ended in a 17-7 Fordham win.
With the 1-3 week, Fordham moves to 3-11 on the year, with a tough hill to climb up from. They’ll face Wagner University at home on Wednesday, March 13, before weekend games against the United States Military Academy West Point and Fairfield University.
