Marist baseball allowed 12 runs in the final three innings, losing to Albany 16-5 on Tuesday afternoon.
Pitching woes once again tripped up the Red Foxes (15-28, 8-10 MAAC conference), who are now on a three-game skid and sit one spot outside the MAAC playoffs. The Great Danes’ (9-28, 6-11 America East conference) balanced offense came to life late in the game, highlighted by freshman outfielder Anthony Scarabino’s four RBIs.
Marist entered the mid-week matchup after a series loss to Canisius in Buffalo. Despite the results over the weekend, the Red Foxes were 8-8 over their last 16 games as they push for a spot in the postseason, a stark improvement from their intense struggles early in the season. In early April, Marist hosted Albany for a midweek doubleheader, where they won both contests.
The pitching staff had stabilized for the Red Foxes, a key to their improved play. Entering the game, Marist had not allowed double-digit runs once over their past 10 games, and only once in their past 14, after doing so regularly early in the season. While still posting an undesirable 8.18 ERA, the staff has more frequently kept the team in games.
Marist got off to a fast start in the first inning against Albany’s starter, sophomore Ryan Pittz. Sophomore infielder Ethan Conrad and freshman outfielder Lewis Rodriguez led off with two consecutive singles to left field before graduate student infielder Justin Kapuscinski moved them over with a foul-out to deep right field. Sophomore infielder Bayram Hot brought home the first run of the game with a sacrifice fly to center.
Given an early 1-0 lead, junior pitcher Chris Ubner took the mound for Marist. Ubner has pitched well of late for the Red Foxes, allowing just three runs over his previous 11 1/3 innings – two of those runs came in his previous appearance against West Point.
The Great Danes also got their first two runners on and eventually loaded the bases with one out. Then, redshirt junior catcher/outfielder Jared Toby evened the score with a sacrifice fly to right before Ubner escaped further damage by picking up his first strikeout to end the inning.
After a one-two-three top of the second for Pittz, Ubner’s command struggled mightily in the bottom half. He issued his third walk of the game to lead off the inning before uncorking a wild pitch to advance the runner to second. After a strikeout, Ubner issued another walk to put runners on first and second with one out. Ubner induced a fielder’s choice where Hot threw to third to cut down the lead runner but then threw another wild pitch to advance both runners to scoring position. One out away from exiting the inning, he threw his third wild pitch, scoring a run and putting Albany ahead 2-1.
The Great Dane lead was short-lived as Marist struck back in the third, largely thanks to a defensive breakdown by Great Dane freshman infielder Cooper Loyal. Sophomore infielder Brady Steinert led off the inning with an infield single and advanced to second on a throwing error by Loyal. Conrad then came up big for the Red Foxes just as he has all season, scoring Steinert with a double down the left field line to knot the game at two.
Conrad advanced to third on a wild pitch and then scored on another error by Loyal that allowed Rodriguez to reach, putting Marist back ahead 3-2. Loyal then committed his third error of the inning, allowing Kapuscinski to reach and moving Rodriguez to second. Hot advanced both runners with a groundout to first before graduate student outfielder Johnny Decker banged a single up the middle to score Rodriguez and make the score 4-2.
Freshman pitcher Colin Carver replaced Ubner to begin the bottom of the third, ending Ubner’s day after two innings, giving up two runs, one hit and four walks. Carver’s outing was short-lived as he issued a pair of walks and a wild pitch before handing the ball to junior pitcher Ty Morris with one out and runners on first and second.
Morris’ first batter was Loyal, who made up for his defensive woes in a big way, lacing an RBI double down the left field line, cutting the Red Fox lead in half. The next batter, Scarabino, tied the game at four with a sacrifice fly before Morris got out of the inning.
Pittz saw his day end when sophomore pitcher Cam Fuer replaced him to begin the fourth. With one out, Conrad singled and then advanced to second on an error by Fuer. Once again, Rodriguez put Marist ahead by a score of 5-4 with an RBI double.
The game’s back-and-forth nature continued into the fourth’s bottom half. Morris walked redshirt freshman outfielder John Vitucci to lead off the inning. Vitucci stole second and, with one out, scored on an RBI single by junior outfielder Ryan Ferremi, the first of four consecutive singles for the Great Danes. On the third of those four singles, sophomore outfielder Luke Filippi put the Great Danes ahead 6-5.
After Toby kept the line moving with a single of his own, Marist senior pitcher Lance Koenig replaced Morris on the mound. Koenig struggled to find any more success. Loyal reached on an error by Steinert that scored a run. Then, Koenig drilled Scarabino to force in another run and put Albany ahead 8-5.
The Red Foxes did not score in the top of the fifth before things totally unraveled for Koenig. He walked the leadoff man, gave up a single, hit a batter to load the bases, and then gave up a run-scoring single to make it 9-5, all with nobody out. Sophomore pitcher Nick Buchman then replaced Koenig with the bases loaded and nobody out. He struck out the first batter he faced but then drilled Toby to force in another run. A wild pitch scored the Great Dane’s 11th run before a two-run single for Scarabino made it 13-5.
Walks continued to plague the Red Foxes into the sixth inning as Buchman walked the bases loaded with nobody out. Junior pitcher Kai Cottle entered for Marist and surrendered an RBI single, adding a run to Albany’s lead. A sacrifice fly tacked on another before yet another wild pitch made it 16-5.
The game ended after Marist recorded three flyouts in the top of the seventh, the Red Foxes’ first loss by 10 or more runs since March 30.
Marist will host Fairfield for a three-game weekend series; the first game will start at 1 p.m. on Friday.
Edited by Sam Murphy
Photo credit: Jaylen Rizzo
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