POMONA, N.Y. – Despite timely pitching early from the Marist Red Foxes, the Rider Broncs ultimately prevailed thanks to late-inning scoring to win 12-2.
Rider entered with high expectations for this year’s tournament; the defending champions reached the championship game in each of the past three seasons, winning two of them. Sophomore pitcher PJ Craig got the nod on the mound for the Broncs after tossing the second-most innings pitched in the conference.
Craig was named to the All-MAAC First Team on Tuesday, joined by Marist’s sophomore outfielder/first baseman Ethan Conrad, the NCAA Division I leader in triples. Rider’s freshman second baseman Joe Tiroly earned both All-MAAC Second Team and MAAC All-Rookie Team honors, while the Bronc’s redshirt freshman outfielder Kyle Neri was also named to the MAAC All-Rookie Team.
The Rider ace and Marist sophomore pitcher Caleb Kempler each threw three scoreless frames, albeit arriving there in different ways. Craig only allowed two singles, while Kempler gave up three hits and walked four batters. The Broncs had at least two base runners on in each inning, but Kempler continued to escape unscathed. With runners on second and third in the second and the bases loaded in the third, Kempler induced two inning-ending flyouts.
Freshman outfielder Lewis Rodriguez finally put the first run on the board, jumping Craig’s first offering of the fourth inning. Rodriguez sent a line drive to left field, barely clearing the left field wall.
After a hit and a walk, Marist head coach Lance Ratchford pulled Kempler in favor of redshirt freshman pitcher Tyler Hartley, who immediately issued a walk to senior utility Brian Skettini and a two-RBI single to graduate student first baseman Luke Lesch.
The Broncs loaded the bases once again, but Hartley got out of the inning without allowing any further damage.
Back-to-back Marist doubles in the top of the fifth evened the score at two a piece. Graduate student outfielder Colin Mackle drove one the other way down the right field line, sliding head-first into second base just ahead of freshman infielder Matt Leahy’s tag. Mackle’s double flipped the lineup, setting the table for Conrad, Marist’s leader in extra-base hits.
Similar to Lesch, Conrad went the other way, dropping one into left field to score Mackle. A strikeout and line-out stranded Conrad in scoring position. Rider immediately put pressure on Hartley in the bottom half of the inning, loading the bases with one out. Hartley promptly got Skettini to ground into a 4-6-3 double play to end the inning, bringing Rider to an astounding 13 runners left on base through five innings.
Rider filled the basepaths with even more traffic in the following inning, eventually loading the bases with two outs. Once again, they could not capitalize. Sophomore outfielder Anthony Paskell flew out to Conrad in right field, leaving the bases loaded for the fourth straight inning.
A walk and error by Tiroly put runners on the corners for the top of the Marist order with only one out. Sophomore pitcher Christian Aiello picked up his teammate after just his second error of the season, striking out Conrad and sophomore infielder Bayram Hot to keep the game scoreless.
In the bottom half of the frame, the Broncs finally cashed in, but once again the Red Foxes limited damage. Skettini doubled to give Rider the lead, but two batters later attempted to score on a Tiroly single to left field. Decker’s throw came in offline but in plenty of time to graduate student catcher Danny Moshier who tagged Skettini out, ending the inning.
Decker had a chance to add to his heroics, stepping to the plate with men on the corners with two outs, but struck out chasing a high fastball. Aiello’s high heater closed the door on Marist’s final push before the Broncs added an abundance of insurance runs in the bottom of the eighth.
The Rider offense finally exploded, hanging nine runs on the Red Foxes to halt the game there, ending in a 12-2 mercy rule victory, thanks to a Leahy bunt to push the lead to 10.
Marist, now in the losers bracket, will play the loser of Mount St. Mary’s and Canisius later this evening at 7 p.m., where the loser will see their season come to an end.
Edited by Dan Aulbach
Photo Credit: Marist Athletics
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