Despite struggling out of the gate, Marist baseball finds itself right in the thick of the MAAC Conference playoff race midway through the 2025 season.
The Red Foxes (14-18, 7-6 MAAC) opened the season 0-8 before going 13-5 over their next 18 games, including a stretch of 10 wins in 12 games, righting the ship and showing important signs of growth from last season. Despite a recent five-game losing streak that ended with a victory in the second game of a doubleheader with Saint Peter’s on Sunday, Marist sits fifth in the MAAC as mid-April approaches.
Marist has seen a vastly improved pitching staff provide them with consistent opportunities to win games despite somewhat inconsistent offense. The emergence of redshirt sophomore Will Taylor at the front of the rotation and the development of several key bullpen arms have taken the pitching staff from the second-worst ERA in the conference a year ago to the second-best this season.
Meanwhile, though the offense has been more unremarkable, big contributions from the likes of graduate student infielder/outfielder Jason Claiborn, junior catcher Kyle Pollack, junior infielder Brady Steinert and junior infielder/outfielder AJ Brotz have helped keep them afloat.
As mentioned previously, Taylor has been a revelation at the front of the rotation. Coming off a season in which he had an ERA north of 8.00 in 48 innings pitched, he has managed to shave almost five runs off his ERA while becoming the club’s Friday starter. His 3.50 ERA in 46.1 innings pitched this season ranks seventh in the MAAC.
Taylor does not strike out the world, tallying 33 so far on the season, but he avoids free baserunners; he has walked only 11 batters and hit one, representing a key point of emphasis for the staff coming into the season.
“We thought he was going to be a front-end guy for us in the future,” head coach Lance Ratchford said, reflecting on Taylor transferring into Marist mid-last year. “It’s a clean arm, he has every single attribute to be successful and to be a pro at some point. He’s been really good.”
Behind Taylor in the rotation, redshirt sophomore right-hander Ty Hartley and senior right-hander Chris Ubner have done well to consistently keep the team in games and give them a chance to win.
The Red Foxes have also received important contributions out of the bullpen, most notably from sophomore right-hander Ethan Marzo, sophomore left-hander Andrew Speranza, senior right-hander Ty Morris and junior right-hander Caleb Kempler, all of whom have an ERA below 4.20.
Marzo has been particularly impressive as he currently boasts a 15.2 inning scoreless streak. He has been a little more lenient with walks, allowing 21 in 21.2 innings pitched, but also holds hitters to a sub .160 batting average against to mitigate any potential damage the walks can bring.
Graduate student Riley Orr has also done a nice job out of the bullpen. His season ERA remains inflated after he struggled out of the gate as a member of the starting rotation, but since moving to the pen, he has logged a 2.63 to provide an extra quality arm in relief.
The combined efforts of the pitching staff have led to a team-ERA of 5.85, good enough for second-best in the MAAC behind Fairfield. Over the full season last year, on the other hand, Marist had a 7.91 team ERA that was only better than Saint Peter’s.
“Big picture [it’s] the maturity of our pitching staff,” Ratchford said of what is most responsible for the team’s improvement from last season. “Strike percentage has been high, free bags have been lower…I think in the past, we’ve just shot ourselves in the foot. It’s not that the talent wasn’t there, but our inability to throw strikes at times hurt us.”
On the offensive side, the Red Foxes rely on a more small ball-like approach because of their lack of power hitting. They have hit 13 home runs and have a team slugging percentage of .358, both last in the MAAC. However, they have struck out the third-fewest times and lead the conference in sacrifice hits, emphasizing their ability to put the ball in play and move runners along.
“Guys have had to handle the bat more this year, we don’t have the boppers,” Ratchford said. “We definitely are more of a small-ball team to safety squeeze and move guys and just fight at the plate.”
Claiborn has been the team’s best hitter, highlighted by his .476 on-base percentage that ranks in the top 10 in the conference. He has played substantial innings both in the corner outfield spots and at first base while also posting a .926 OPS, .333 batting average, 24 RBIs and nine stolen bases.
Claiborn’s success comes in his graduate year after transferring to Marist from Division III Eastern Connecticut State University, where he had a successful four-year career that included a Division III national championship. However, he had his worst season last year and became motivated by a coach who doubted him.
“He told me that I made an entire career out of hitting bad pitching,” Claiborn said. “I knew that what was said about me wasn’t true, what people believed about me wasn’t true. And if I had anything to say about it, I wasn’t going to let that be the last thing said about my baseball career.”
Despite it being his first season with the team, Claiborn is also a captain and one of the team’s most prominent leaders.
“Bigger than any of the stats, I want to help leave a legacy,” he said. I want to help continue to build Marist baseball to the program that it used to be… I want to be a guy that even after I’m gone, people can always say did the right things and hopefully a guy who they can say led by example.”
Claiborn’s offensive exploits have been supplemented by two bats that have resurrected their Marist careers: Pollack and Steinert. Pollack hit just .217 last year with an OPS of .564, while Steinert hit .151 with a .441 OPS, but this year, they rank second and third on the team in OPS at .835 and .812, respectively.
Steinert has been a more unlikely development, considering both his numbers last year and the fact that he only had three at-bats in the team’s first seven games this season. But when given a chance, he took off. He went 4-for-5 in his first start of the season against North Carolina A&T State and is second on the team with 23 RBIs despite having only the seventh-most at-bats.
“He’s just been so hungry to not correct last year, but to be better,” Ratchford said of Steinert. “We really rode him for a couple weeks, him just swinging a hot bat. He’s been cold of late, but we’re going to get him going again.”
Sophomore outfielder Lewis Rodriguez, who the team expected to play a big role on offense coming into the season, has struggled a bit more. He has just three extra-base hits and an OPS of .610, a steep drop from his freshman year last season when he hit seven homers and had an OPS of .818.
“We still think he’s going to be an incredible player for us down the stretch here,” Ratchford said. “He’s also dealt with a little bit of injury stuff with his ankle, and he was sick a little bit too. But when he’s at his peak, he’s one of the best players in the league.”
A healthy and productive Rodriguez could work wonders for the Marist offense and help take them to the next level. Considering the team has made vast strides despite his production dropping, there is even more opportunity for success if he gets hot.
Even with their struggles, last season’s club snuck into the MAAC Championship as the sixth and final seed and managed to win two games. With the MAAC Championship now expanded to eight teams to account for the addition of Merrimack and Sacred Heart to the conference, the Red Foxes stand in a good position to go back to the playoffs and make some noise.
“We were a back half of the year team my first year even though it was one of those building block years,” Ratchford said. “The way we finished last year, I’m expecting us to burst to that finish line and have another really impactful finish to the year.”
15 conference games remain for Marist before the MAAC Championship begins on May 20 at Clover Stadium in Pomona, N.Y. With some of the best pitching in the conference, the Red Foxes have a chance to win games down the stretch and set themselves up for success in May.
The best way for them to do this, according to Ratchford and Claiborn, is to play connected baseball.
“When we play connected baseball, nobody, in my opinion, can beat us,” Claiborn said. “When the pitchers are pitching, the hitters are executing, when we play great defense, that’s when we are winning those games.”
Edited by Ryan Eichem and Ben Leeds
Graphic by Raegan Van Zandt; Photos from John Jankowski
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