After being run-ruled by Sacred Heart this morning, Marist baseball flipped the script by pummeling fourth-seeded Siena 12-2 in a soaking wet, win-or-go-home game in the MAAC Baseball Championship at Clover Stadium.
Siena fell to the losers’ bracket by way of a heartbreaking loss earlier in the afternoon. They took a 6-4 lead over Quinnipiac in the eighth inning on a grand slam by junior utilityman Owen Pincince but gave up three runs in the top of the ninth to lose 7-6. Their ace and All-MAAC First Team honoree Alistair Morin delivered seven innings and allowed just one run on 120 pitches.
Wasting Morin’s start was a blow for the Saints, as he is the only pitcher on the staff who had an ERA below 6.00 in the regular season. Heading into their matchup with Marist, they faced the reality of needing to win their way out of the loser’s bracket without their ace.
Marist found themselves in the losers’ bracket after being dominated by Sacred Heart this morning. Their offense, which was red-hot yesterday, slowed while their pitching surrendered 13 hits and nine walks.
But against Siena, Marist looked much more like the team that smoked Mount St. Mary’s on Tuesday.
Redshirt sophomore right-hander Tyler Hartley turned in his best performance of the season on the mound, keeping Saints hitters off balance and pounding the strike zone all night. Meanwhile, freshman infielder Noel Rivera delivered three of the Red Foxes’ 11 hits as well as four RBIs.
For the first time in the tournament, Marist got on the board first. Rivera singled and stole second with one out before graduate student outfielder Jason Claiborn flicked a soft single up the middle to score Rivera. The Saints’ starter, senior right-hander Noah Rodriguez, surrendered another hit to junior infielder AJ Brotz but escaped further trouble with a strikeout and ground out.
In the regular season, Rodriguez allowed 12 home runs, the second-most in the MAAC; Marist added to that total in the third. Rodriguez drew a leadoff walk for the Red Foxes ahead of Rivera, who blasted a two-run shot to left to expand the Red Fox lead to 3-0.
Meanwhile, Hartley looked terrific in the early going. He struggled for the better part of the regular season despite entering the year with high expectations, but saved his best start for the most important game.
Through the first four innings, Hartley allowed just two hits and struck out four. Most importantly, and a change of course from Marist’s game against Sacred Heart, he came out throwing strikes; 27 of his first 39 pitches found the strike zone.
The fifth inning nearly took a disastrous turn for Hartley and Marist when junior infielder Nick Bergamotto hit a line drive back at Hartley that deflected off his pitching hand. He recovered to make the play but appeared to be in pain as he grimaced and shook out his hand. After a visit from his coaches and athletic trainer, he remained in the game and worked around a two-out double to get through five scoreless innings.
On the other side, the Marist bats pulled away in the sixth. Rodriguez worked one-two-three innings in the fourth and fifth but hit Brotz with a pitch to open the sixth. Then, graduate student shortstop Zach Donahue laced a single to right that moved Brotz to third as Pincince bobbled the transfer in the outfield.
With runners on first and third and no outs, junior outfielder Dylan Millman dropped down a safety squeeze that Brotz beat out at the plate to make the score 4-0. Redshirt freshman outfielder Chris Diaz proceeded to drop down a second consecutive bunt to move the runners to scoring position before freshman catcher Drew McGowan walked to load the bases.
Siena turned to redshirt sophomore right-hander Ryan Taffe with the bases juiced and he promptly walked senior outfielder Nate Lincoln to force in a run. He then struck out Rodriguez to form a route out of the inning, but hung a 1-2 breaking ball to Rivera that resulted in a two-run single, making the score 7-0.
After Rivera’s hit, Taffe lost all forms of control and walked in two more runs to send the game to the bottom of the sixth, 9-0.
Hartley continued into the sixth inning and had his most laborious inning of the day. He allowed a single and a walk and had a runner reach on an error by Brotz, but induced a fielder’s choice to Rivera to get through six scoreless innings. Coming into the game, Hartley had not gone more than 5.2 innings or allowed zero runs in any outing this season.
While Siena warmed up on the field prior to the start of the seventh, the game stopped for about 20 minutes when the stadium lights went dark. Up 9-0, Marist’s dugout spent the delay dancing to the music blaring through the stadium sound system.
With four wins still needed beyond Wednesday, Marist head coach Lance Ratchford attempted to squeeze a little more out of Hartley in the seventh. After he walked the leadoff man on four pitches, Ratchford finally went to his bullpen and sophomore left-hander Andrew Speranza. The southpaw recorded three outs in order while striking out two to get through the seventh and preserve Hartley’s shutout.
In the eighth, a two-run double by Donahue and a dropped fly ball by junior outfielder Joe D’Elia put Marist ahead 12-0.
Rain fell throughout the course of the evening and picked up late in the game. The ballpark grounds crew worked on the field repeatedly between innings, but even still, the infield dirt glistened and appeared very damp by the late innings.
Before the ninth inning, umpires, coaches and MAAC officials met for about 10 minutes to discuss the weather and field situation. According to MAAC Championship rules, elimination games cannot end via run-rule, so the ninth inning needed to be played despite a 10-run Marist lead. Given the poor weather forecast for tomorrow, there was increased pressure to finish this game in its entirety, so the two teams stuck it out in the poor conditions.
Through the raindrops, Speranza worked a one-two-three ninth inning to finish off three innings out of the bullpen and secure a 12-2 Marist win.
The Red Foxes advance to play the loser of Fairfield vs. Sacred Heart tomorrow evening at 7 p.m.
Edited by Ben Leeds
Graphic by Nate Babcock
Photo by Cassidy Connors
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