Most of Fordham’s students enjoyed a week off for spring break, but Fordham Baseball stayed busy, winning four out of their five games.
The Rams began the week with a 9-6 home victory over the University of Maine Bears. The Bears scored two in the first inning with a leadoff home run and an RBI triple. The Rams responded quickly, scoring three runs including sophomore Madden Ocko’s two-run single. After Maine scored two to briefly regain the lead, Fordham University answered to tie the game in the third on an RBI single from senior T.J. Wachter. later scored on sophomore Carson Chavez’s single, giving the Rams a 5-4 advantage.
The score remained until the sixth inning, when Maine tied the game with a solo home run, before Fordham once again reclaimed the lead with a sacrifice fly and an RBI triple from junior Daniel Bucciero. The Rams added insurance runs late with a pair of RBI doubles, before senior relief pitcher Connor Haywood shut the door on the 9-6 win, earning his first save of the season.
The next day, the Rams notched a 5-2 win on the road over the Hofstra University Pride. The Rams struck first in the third inning when freshman Tommy Markey ripped an RBI double and later scored to give Fordham a 2-0 lead. Hofstra cut the deficit with a solo home run in the fourth, but the Rams responded by extending the lead to 4-1. Later, junior Tommy McAndrews added an insurance run with a solo blast to left.
On the side of pitching, starter and graduate student Ameer Hasan allowed just one run on six hits with three strikeouts over 5.2 innings, earning the win. Junior Ryan Egan, freshman Beau Elson and sophomore Koen Smith combined to lock down the final 3.1 innings and secure the 5-2 victory.
Fordham then hosted the University of Massachusetts (UMass) Minutemen for an Atlantic 10 weekend series. In the opener, the Rams’ pitching staff dominated, allowing just five hits, while three runs in each of the first three innings provided more than enough run support for the 6-0 shutout victory.
In the tilt’s first inning, sophomore Matt Dieguez delivered a two-run single. In the second, graduate student Andrew Kanellis hit a two-run single of his own. The scoring was capped in the third inning with an RBI single off freshman Anthony Grabau’s bat and a sacrifice fly by senior Cian Sahler.
On the mound, sophomore starter Aidan Dowd tossed six shutout innings with eight strikeouts to earn his second win of the season. Senior Robbie Stewart took care of the final three innings, striking out six of the nine batters he faced to lock down the 6-0 victory.
In the second game, the bats exploded, as the Rams manufactured a late rally to pull off a 10-9 comeback victory. UMass plated two runs in the first inning before Fordham cut the deficit in half in the bottom of the inning. After the Minutemen added another run in the fourth, the Rams tied the game at three in the fifth inning on a two-run double from freshman Taylor Kirk.
A UMass grand slam in the seventh inning put Fordham on the ropes, but a Rams rally quickly made it a one-run ballgame again. In the bottom half of the frame, Chavez drew a walk and Kirk reached on an error to extend the inning, before Sahler crushed a three-run homer to right-center, trimming the lead to 7-6.
UMass tacked on two runs in the top of the ninth, but Fordham had one more rally left in the tank. Markey led off the bottom of the ninth with a single, Kirk was hit by a pitch and Sahler worked a walk to load the bases with no outs. Kanellis then launched a deep fly ball to left that just missed clearing the wall for a walk-off grand slam but was deep enough for a sacrifice fly, cutting the deficit to 9-7.
With two outs and the bases loaded again, Dieguez was hit by a pitch, bringing home another run to make it 9-8. That set the stage for Chavez, who delivered in the clutch, ripping a double to left field that brought home two runs and sealed a dramatic 10-9 walk-off win for the Rams.
The third and final game of the series was another tight contest, which ended in a 3-2 Fordham loss in 11 innings. The Rams got on the board first with graduate student Reid Lapekas’ RBI single in the second inning. The Minutemen tied the game at one in the fourth, but after the fourth, both the UMass and Fordham pitching staffs dominated, with both teams allowing just two hits until the ninth inning when UMass broke the tie with a solo homer. The Rams sent the game to extra innings after Kirk led off the ninth with a double and Kanellis singled to send him home. In extras, the Minutemen took a 3-2 lead in the 11th inning and shut the door in the bottom of the frame on the 3-2 victory.
The Rams ended the week going on an impressive 4-1 run, bringing their overall record to 10-14 and 4-2 in conference play. Fordham will face their next game versus the Wagner College Seahawks on Wednesday, March 26, before heading to the south to Virginia for a weekend series with another Atlantic 10 rival, the University of Richmond.
