Marist baseball earned a much-needed series win on Easter weekend, taking two out of three from Mount St. Mary’s in Emmitsburg, MD, behind strong pitching and two consecutive 12-hit offensive outbursts.
Freshman infielder Noel Rivera, fresh off a MAAC Conference Rookie of the Week award, led the way by continuing his red-hot hitting. He hit 7-for-14 in the series with a homer and five RBIs to help catapult Marist to fourth place in the MAAC.
The Red Foxes entered having lost three of their last four conference matchups, including a two-game sweep at the hands of Canisius and a two-game split against MAAC bottom-dwellers St. Peter’s. They spent the better part of the last two weeks attempting to climb out of the skid, where the offense faltered and some of their top arms had uncharacteristic poor outings.
The Mount entered on a four-game losing streak, though their losses came against formidable opponents in Michigan and Indiana. While not particularly elite in any specific category, the Mountaineers rank in the top half of the MAAC in both batting average and ERA.
Game one proved to be the low point of the weekend for the Red Foxes as they suffered a tough, 12-inning one-run loss. Marist only mustered five hits in the game but walked 10 times and got hit by a pitch three times. They ultimately left 13 runners on base and struggled to pick up the big hit, costing them in the bottom of the twelfth when senior outfielder Mateo Zeppieri launched a walk-off solo homer against freshman right-hander Logan Scholl; Zeppieri went on to homer in each game of the series to bring his season total to 11, tied for second in the MAAC.
After sophomore left-hander Andrew Speranza pitched the first two innings and surrendered three runs, graduate student right-hander Riley Orr and junior right-hander Caleb Kempler, two of head coach Lance Ratchford’s most trusted bullpen arms, combined to allow just one run over the next eight innings before Zeppieri’s heroics sent the Mountaineers home with a win.
After a four-plus hour affair in game one, game two moved along at a comparatively blistering pace. Marist scratched out a first-inning run by way of a sac fly from junior infielder/outfielder AJ Brotz, but did not score again until the seventh inning.
Meanwhile, redshirt sophomore ace Will Taylor started and pitched five innings for Marist. He pitched solidly outside of a three-run third inning, capped by Zeppieri’s second homer of the series. In total, Taylor allowed five hits, three runs and struck out three.
Outside of the third inning, Taylor allowed just two hits and no runs, an encouraging sign for the Red Foxes, as he has given up at least three runs in four of his last five starts. In that span, he has an ERA over 5.00, which, while still solid, is not the 2.39 ERA he had prior.
Through the sixth inning, Marist’s bats scattered five hits but still had just the first inning run to show for it until sophomore outfielder Lewis Rodriguez came through in the seventh with a two-run single that tied the game at three and rejuvenated the Red Fox offense. However, the Mountaineers struck right back in the bottom of the inning on a go-ahead solo homer by freshman infielder Nolan Book and headed into the ninth inning with a one-run lead that Marist proceeded to flip.
Junior infielder Aydan McNelly pinch-hit to lead off the inning and singled to right field. Then, after Rodriguez made the first out of the inning, freshman infielder Noel Rivera picked up his third hit of the day to tie the game at four. Graduate student outfielder Jason Claiborn made the second out of the inning ahead of Brotz, who put the ball in play and reached on an error by Book that scored Rivera to put Marist ahead.
With a sudden one-run lead, junior infielder Brady Steinert pinch hit for junior catcher Kyle Pollack and immediately put the hammer down by launching a two-run homer to put the Red Foxes ahead by three, a lead that held in the bottom of the inning when sophomore Ethan Marzo earned his first save of the season despite putting the tying runs on base.
Senior right-hander Chris Ubner proved vital in the game two win, completing three innings of one-run ball to bridge the gap from Taylor to Marzo. Ubner has been mostly used out of a starting role recently but delivered in relief to give the Marist bats a chance.
Saturday’s rubber match saw the Red Foxes play a clean game all-around to secure the series win. Ratchford went with a bullpen game that saw five pitchers combine to allow three runs. Junior right-hander Jake Burt started for Marist and delivered scoreless frames in each of the first two innings. He got the first two outs in the third but also surrendered a run that led to his removal in favor of redshirt sophomore right-hander Ryan VanDeWater.
VanDeWater got the Red Foxes through the bottom of the fifth and was effective until Zeppieri tagged him for a two-out, two-run homer in the fifth, the only runs VanDeWater gave up and the final runs of the game for the Mountaineers.
Zeppieri’s homer cut Marist’s lead to 4-3 after the Red Foxes scored a run in four of the first five innings. Rivera led off the game with a solo shot to open his second consecutive three-hit performance; he also drove in a run in the fourth with a triple. Senior infielder/outfielder Nate Lincoln also launched a homer in the fifth for Marist’s fourth run, his second long ball of the year.
On the defensive side, senior right-hander Ty Morris, redshirt sophomore right-hander Bobby LeFevre and Speranza combined to keep the Mount off the board from the sixth inning on while the Marist offense put the game out of reach with another four-run ninth inning to secure an 8-3 victory.
Rivera has been a revelation in April for the Red Foxes. He struggled earlier in the season on both sides of the ball before losing playing time to Steinert, who suddenly became red-hot. But since slotting into the lineup on April 4 against Canisius, Rivera is hitting .444 across 36 at-bats with four doubles and three home runs. In that span, he has raised his season average from .136 to .275.
Marist takes on Rider in a three-game set at McCann Field beginning on Friday, April 25. The Broncs give the Red Foxes their toughest MAAC challenge to date; they rank second in the MAAC with a .299 team batting average and currently sit in second place. First pitch on Friday is at 3 p.m.
Edited by Marley Pope
Photo by Kira Crutcher
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