Marist baseball earned its first series sweep of the season this weekend, winning three in a row against the Niagara Purple Eagles behind lights-out pitching and an offensive outburst in game three.
Coming into the weekend, Marist had given up fewer than five runs in an individual game just twice all season; this weekend, they allowed only four runs in all three games combined. Meanwhile, they scored 25 runs and received offensive production up and down the lineup, including another big weekend from junior infielder Brady Steinert – who raised his batting average to .425.
The series marked the Purple Eagles’ first conference games of the season. After winning the MAAC Conference tournament last season, Niagara is just 2-13 this season as it struggles to generate offense, ranking in the bottom three of the conference in runs scored.
In game one, redshirt sophomore left-hander Will Taylor took the mound first for the Red Foxes and continued to establish himself as the frontman of Marist’s staff. He gave up a leadoff home run to junior outfielder Nate Milk which proved to be the only blemish against him. After turning in six innings of one-run ball, Taylor’s season ERA sits at 2.39, the second-best mark among qualified pitchers in the MAAC.
On the offensive side, Marist only had five hits in the game, but sloppy pitching and defense by the Purple Eagles aided the Red Foxes. They scored four runs in the third in large part because of two walks, a hit by pitch and two balks, but also because of a big two-run double by sophomore outfielder Lewis Rodriguez that started the scoring.
Marist pushed a couple more runs across in the fourth. Junior catcher Kyle Pollack and freshman infielder Luke Monico both walked to set up junior infielder AJ Brotz with runners on first and second and two outs. Brotz singled up the middle and scored both runners, though Monico scored because of an error by Niagara senior third baseman Vincent Mauro, meaning only Pollack’s run was earned.
With the Red Foxes up 6-1 after four, each team had only two hits the rest of the way. After Taylor’s terrific start, sophomore Ethan Marzo replaced him to begin the seventh. The right-hander walked two and gave up a single in the inning but struck out Milk to strand the bases loaded. He was clean in the eighth, then allowed two more runners to reach in the ninth, prompting Marist to turn to junior right-hander Caleb Kempler, who locked down the final two outs via strikeout to solidify the Red Foxes’ second consecutive series-opening win.
Game two saw Ty Hartley take the bump for Marist. Heading into his start, the redshirt sophomore right-hander had shown flashes of brilliance in several of his previous starts but had not been able to put it all together over a complete outing. That changed on Saturday when he turned in five innings while allowing two runs on six hits, his best effort of the season thus far.
Hartley did allow a first inning run for the fourth time in five starts this season courtesy of an RBI single by Mauro but was untouched until the fifth when he allowed his second run on an RBI single by junior utility-man Curtis McKay.
On the other side, Niagara’s sophomore starting pitcher Gage Wheaton silenced the Red Fox bats over the first five innings, allowing just three sporadic hits. In the sixth, after the first two men reached base against Wheaton, the Purple Eagles turned to junior right-hander Andrew Damiani. He first faced senior infielder/outfielder Nate Lincoln, who advanced both runners into scoring position before Steinert doubled home a run to cut Niagara’s lead in half.
Pollack immediately followed Steinert with a two-run single that put the Red Foxes ahead 3-2, a big enough cushion for a lights-out Marist bullpen. Redshirt sophomore right-hander Ryan VanDeWater allowed no hits over two innings of relief and Riley Orr allowed just one over two innings himself.
After Orr began the season as a starter and struggled mightily, the Red Foxes seem to be successfully experimenting with using him in different roles. Last week, they used an opener before Orr pitched the second through fifth innings and allowed just one earned run. Now, they used him in a closer’s role and provided a clean six-out save.
Marist tacked on a run in the eighth on a squeeze play executed by Steinert that scored graduate student infielder Zach Donahue for the final run of the game, a 4-2 Marist victory to lock up a series win.
In the series finale, the Red Foxes blasted Niagara to earn a seven-inning 15-1 victory and their first series sweep of the season. The third starter spot has become a revolving door for Marist since transitioning Orr to the bullpen and on Sunday, senior right-hander Chris Ubner got his first start of the season.
Ubner turned in a terrific outing of four innings in which he allowed no hits and struck out six. Coming into the game, Ubner had pitched just 2.1 innings all season; he nearly tripled his innings total in the outing.
Freshman right-hander Logan Scholl followed Ubner with 2.2 one-hit innings and five strikeouts. The lone hit he surrendered was a fifth-inning solo homer by junior infielder Jacob Brooks; the homer proved to be Niagara’s only hit in the game. Junior right-hander Jake Burt recorded the final out of the game for Marist to wrap up a terrific weekend of pitching for the Red Foxes.
While the pitching dominated, Marist put up 15 runs in game three, highlighted by a grand slam off the bat of redshirt freshman catcher Scott Esposito. In total, six different players drove in runs for Marist and Steinert continued to be a vital source of offense, going 4-for-4 with two RBI.
Junior infielder AJ Brotz, redshirt freshman outfielder Chris Diaz, Pollack, Esposito and Steinert all drove in multiple runs in the game while the team left only four runners on base.
After their most complete all-around effort this season, the Red Foxes will play a quick non-conference game at Heritage Financial Park on Wednesday afternoon against FDU before traveling to Quinnipiac to continue their conference slate next weekend. The first pitch on both Wednesday and Friday is at 3 p.m.
Edited by Ben Leeds
Graphic by Kira Crutcher
Photo from John Jankowski
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