In the final regular season series of the season, Marist baseball took two out of three from Siena in Loudonville, N.Y. over the weekend to clinch the seventh seed in the eight-team 2025 MAAC Baseball Championship beginning on Tuesday.
Marist entered the series in control of their own destiny. They needed to win twice to guarantee themselves a spot in the playoffs but also could have made it by winning fewer games if they received help from other teams around the MAAC.
Given the weekend results, Marist will play sixth-seeded Mount St. Mary’s in a first-round single-elimination game on Tuesday. With a win, they will advance to the double elimination rounds for the second straight year.
The series saw high-powered offense on both sides as each team scored at least 10 runs twice. Back-to-back displays of offensive firepower in games one and two catapulted the Red Foxes into the playoffs for the second straight year while Siena managed to secure a first round bye with their game three victory on Saturday.
Game one was a thriller that Marist eventually won 13-11. Both teams combined for 29 hits while eight different players collected multiple knocks.
Graduate student infielder/outfielder Jason Claiborn led the way for the Red Foxes by going 3-for-5 with five RBIs. His three-run double in the fifth put Marist ahead 10-2 before junior infielder AJ Brotz delivered an RBI single to make it 11-2.
Meanwhile, redshirt sophomore left-hander Will Taylor started for the Red Foxes. Taylor went just three innings on 42 pitches while allowing two runs and striking out two. Presumably, the short start was precautionary as Taylor is a candidate to start the Red Foxes’ first playoff game on Tuesday.
Despite a huge Marist lead in the middle innings, the Saints fought back aggressively. They got three runs back over the fifth and sixth innings to cut the deficit to six runs, though Claiborn and Brotz again drove in runs in the seventh to bring Marist’s total to 13.
Now trailing 13-5, Siena again went to work against the Red Fox bullpen. After recording the final out in the sixth inning, sophomore left-hander Andrew Speranza issued a walk, single and double to the first three hitters of the seventh, making the score 13-7. Senior right-hander Ty Morris replaced him and recorded three outs in order, but Speranza’s final runner came home on a groundout to bring Siena within five.
Morris continued into the eighth but, like Speranza, could not record an out in his second inning of work. Sophomore infielder Jake Sparks tagged him for a three-run homer to end his outing and bring the Saints suddenly within two runs.
Now with a close game on his hands, Marist head coach Lance Ratchford turned to one of his best relievers, sophomore Ethan Marzo, to get the final six outs. Despite hitting a batter to begin the ninth, Marzo locked down the win to bring Marist one victory away from clinching a playoff berth.
In addition to Claiborn and Brotz, who each had three hits, sophomore outfielder Lewis Rodriguez and senior outfielder Nate Lincoln also had multiple hits. Rodriguez went 2-for-3 out of the leadoff spot in his second consecutive game at the top of the lineup after spending most of the season hitting lower in the order.
“He’s been really good just as far as seeing pitches,” head coach Lance Ratchford said after Marist beat Fordham on Tuesday. “We just wanted him to do the same thing he’s been doing, but set the table for us.”
The Red Foxes again put up double-digit runs in game two, but this time cruised to a much easier victory. Rodriguez had two more hits out of the leadoff spot while Brotz, senior infielder Zach Donahue and junior outfielder Dylan Millman also collected multiple hits.
Millman provided the keynote with the first home run of his Marist career, a fifth-inning three-run shot that put Marist ahead 6-1.
The Red Foxes’ pitching proved much more stable in game two, led by senior right-hander Chris Ubner and senior left-hander John Hacker. Ubner started and went the first three innings and, despite allowing four hits and issuing four walks, allowed just one run.
Hacker followed with 4.1 innings of one-run ball after pitching three scoreless innings against Fordham on Tuesday. The outing was just Hacker’s ninth appearance of the season after missing all of last season with injury and having an ERA north of 10 in both 2022 and 2023. Suddenly, the southpaw has provided two consecutive quality outings within the last week.
Redshirt sophomore right-hander Tyler Hartley followed Hacker with his first appearance out of the bullpen this season. Hartley has made 12 starts this year, but this time delivered 1.2 innings to wrap up Marist’s postseason clinching victory.
Despite having already clinched a playoff berth, Saturday’s game three still held playoff implications for the Red Foxes. They entered play on Saturday as the seventh seed, but if everything fell their way, they could have found themselves as high as the fourth seed by day’s end.
Earning the fourth seed would have been important for Marist as the top four seeds earn a first round bye. On the other hand, all teams below the fourth seed play a single elimination game in the first round.
Marist ultimately fell short of earning a better seed as Siena took the final game of the regular season behind solid pitching and a 15-hit offensive outburst. Even if Marist had won, the best seed they could have earned would have been the fifth seed after Quinnipiac won their final game to lock up the fourth seed.
Marist went ahead 2-0 in the first inning behind freshman infielder Noel Rivera, who drove in the first run with a double and scored the second via a steal of home. They led until the fourth when Siena evened the game with RBI knocks from sophomore catcher Noah Brooks and senior outfielder Gunnar Meland. Then, in the fifth, Brooks and Meland teamed up with junior infielder Nick Bergamotto to drive in four more runs and jump ahead 6-2.
Siena scored four more in the seventh to go ahead 10-2, highlighted by a three-run double off the bat of junior outfielder Gavin Thorburn.
Marist scratched a run in the eighth on a sacrifice fly by Donahue, but ultimately fell 10-3 to lock themselves into the seventh seed. To move into the double elimination rounds of the tournament, the Red Foxes will first need to defeat sixth-seeded Mount St. Mary’s in a win-or-go-home round one game on Tuesday.
First pitch is set for 3 p.m. on Tuesday afternoon. The entire tournament will take place at Clover Stadium in Pomona, N.Y.
Edited by Ben Leeds
Graphic by Nate Babcock
Photo by Caitlin Bombassei
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