In their final non-conference and home game of the season, Marist baseball defeated Fordham 7-4 on Tuesday at McCann Field.
Every hitter in the Red Fox lineup reached base at least once while freshman infielder Noel Rivera continued his red-hot hitting by going 2-5 with three RBIs, including an RBI triple in the sixth. After losing two out of three to Manhattan over the weekend, the game provided a final tune-up before the Red Foxes head to Siena on Thursday to begin their final regular season series.
Senior southpaw John Hacker started for Marist (21-25, 12-13 MAAC) in just his eighth appearance of the season. Using a fastball-slider mix and working down in the zone, he recorded the first two outs in order before junior infielder Daniel Bucciero snuck a single past graduate student shortstop Zach Donahue. Bucciero then stole second but was caught trying to swipe another to end the inning by freshman catcher Drew McGowan, the first caught stealing of McGowan’s collegiate career.
Hacker and graduate student lefty Zach Karson both opened with two shutout innings. In the third, Fordham (23-30, 13-13 A10) sophomore catcher Carson Chavez led off with a well-struck opposite-field double to right-center field, but Hacker recovered to retire the next three batters in order to end his day after three scoreless innings.
In the bottom half of the third, McGowan led off with a line-drive single to right and senior outfielder Nate Lincoln followed with a cue-shot double that floated over the first baseman’s head. Then, with one out, graduate student infielder/outfielder Jason Claiborn hit a slow ground ball to the left side that Fordham graduate student shortstop Jack Brennan overran, scoring McGowan. Lincoln attempted to move to third on the play and was thrown out by Brennan before Rivera flew out to end the inning with Marist ahead 1-0.
The Rams struck right back in the fourth against freshman right-hander Logan Scholl. Scholl hit the first batter he faced with a slider and proceeded to walk the next. Graduate student outfielder Andrew Kanellis followed with a run-scoring single to right, evening the score 1-1. Sophomore outfielder Matt Dieguez sent a sacrifice fly to right to put Fordham ahead 2-1 before Chavez laid down a bunt to execute a safety squeeze and extend the lead to 3-1.
Fordham’s lead proved to be short-lived as the Red Foxes loaded the bases with one out in the home half of the fourth. McGowan worked an eight-pitch walk to score a run and Lincoln drove in a run with a sac-fly to even the game once again. Back at the top of the order, sophomore outfielder Lewis Rodriguez lined an RBI-single to left to put Marist back in front 4-3 and chase Karson from the game.
Senior right-hander Connor Haywood replaced Carson and promptly walked his first batter and surrendered a two-run single to Rivera, sending the game to the fifth inning with Marist ahead 6-3.
Both offenses slowed until the sixth when Marist tacked on a run via a triple to the left-center gap by Rivera. Entering the game, Rivera had been hitting a sweltering .367 in 79 at bats since April 4 after a slow start to the season.
“We had high hopes for him going into the year, he just kind of got off to a slow start,” said head coach Lance Ratchford. “And then when that Canisius series rolled around, he’s been the best freshman in the conference since then.”
“My biggest thing was a mindset change,” Rivera said of what he has worked on to improve his season. “I wasn’t in a mature mindset. Coming back, I have more of a mindset of don’t worry about what happened before, even the pitch before. Don’t worry about it, continue to think ahead and try to hit the ball hard instead of trying to get hits.”
Meanwhile, senior right-hander Ty Morris and junior right-hander Jake Burt combined to throw four scoreless innings out of the bullpen. Burt’s scoreless eighth inning was aided by a beautiful running catch at the fence in the left-center gap by Rodriguez to open the inning.
The bottom half of the eighth provided a scare for Marist when Fordham freshman southpaw AJ Pino drilled Claiborn on the arm with a fastball. He remained on the ground in pain for a couple of minutes but stayed in to run the bases; Junior infielder Aydan McNelly replaced Claiborn at first base for the ninth inning.
“Got him on the meat,” said head coach Lance Ratchford. “It’s one of those things…hopefully the swelling goes down and I think he should be alright.”
The Rams threatened in the ninth, bringing the tying run to the plate with the bases loaded and nobody out. Graduate student right-hander Riley Orr started the inning but only survived two batters after hitting graduate student outfielder Reid Lapekas in the helmet and issuing a walk before freshman right-hander Bobby LeFevre replaced him. He walked the first batter he faced but managed to retire the next two batters, the second on a run-scoring sac-fly to make the score 7-4.
LeFevre then issued another walk to put the tying run on base, but Rivera made a smooth sliding play to his left to end the game in a 7-4 Marist win.
The Red Foxes will now look to Thursday when they travel north to face Siena for the first of three against the Saints. If they win twice, they guarantee themselves a spot in the MAAC Conference Championship next week.
“I want us to win our way in,’ Ratchford said. “We control it all and I think the mentality is just nothing to lose but everything to gain, and then just worry about one game at a time.”
First pitch on Thursday is scheduled for 3 p.m.
Edited by Ryan Eichem
Photo by Caitlin Bombassei
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