Marist baseball continued its positive turnaround after their 11-game losing skid to begin the season, sweeping MAAC rival Saint Peter’s this weekend at Heritage Financial Park.
After dropping their MAAC opener to Manhattan, the Red Foxes have won five consecutive games against MAAC opponents; in the early going, Marist is currently tied with Rider for first in the conference.
Graduate student outfielder Nathan Lincoln led the Red Foxes’ offense, tallying seven hits and four RBIs in the series while recording multiple hits in all three games. The Red Foxes edged out the Peacocks in the first two games by scores of 5-4 and 4-3 before exploding in the series finale for 11 runs.
The bullpen also proved to be a major strength for Marist. Across 12.1 innings of work, the bullpen let up only one run. The efforts from all relievers made a significant difference in the first two games, as the Red Foxes snuck away with two one-run victories.
Redshirt junior left-hander Will Taylor took the mound for the Red Foxes on Friday against the Peacocks’ redshirt senior right-hander Kurt Thomas. Taylor encountered trouble early, giving up four hits and two runs in the first. Redshirt junior first baseman Bobby Lavely and redshirt sophomore infielder Chase Fogg drove in both runs for the Peacocks to put them up early in the first, but Taylor struck out two to get out of the inning.
Taylor shut the Peacocks offense down from there, giving up only one run through the next three innings while tallying five strikeouts. Senior infielder AJ Brotz got Marist on the board in the third, hitting a sac-fly to score freshman infielder Connor Lawrence and split the deficit. The Peacocks put up another run in the fourth, but the Red Foxes struck right back after an error scored redshirt freshman outfielder Michael Mayhugh.
Redshirt junior right-hander Bobby LeFevre and redshirt sophomore right-hander Andrew Fierro continued to hold the Peacocks offense at bay. After LeFevre gave up an unearned run in the sixth, the Red Foxes finally broke through for three runs in the bottom half. Fierro fired three scoreless innings to earn the save; he allowed just one hit and struck out five to preserve the victory.
Redshirt junior right-hander Tyler Hartley started against senior left-hander James Ellis in game two. Hartley dominated through five innings, striking out seven and giving up only three hits and two earned runs. Ellis matched his efforts, giving up only one run across 4.1 innings, working out of jams and stranding six runners on base.
The Peacocks took the lead in the fifth, putting up three runs on a single by redshirt freshman first baseman Aidan Forrest and a double by freshman catcher/first baseman Max Abrams.
The Red Foxes took advantage of poor fielding and responded right away in the bottom of the inning, with sophomore infielder Noel Rivera scoring on an error and Lincoln scoring on a passed ball to tie the game. A single from redshirt sophomore catcher Scott Esposito scored Brotz to take the lead in the fifth. Redshirt freshmen pitchers Connor Southwell and Aidan Vargas pitched a combined four shutout innings to help the Red Foxes escape with the win.
In the final game, redshirt junior right-hander Steven Mazza took the mound for Marist against redshirt sophomore right-hander Marcus Monroe. Mazza had the longest outing of all Marist starters on the weekend, going 5.2 innings and giving up three runs. The Red Foxes pounced on Monroe early, tagging him for three runs off of a Lawrence single, a sacrifice fly from senior catcher/infielder Kyle Pollack and a Lincoln triple.
The Peacocks responded across the second and third innings by way of two fielder’s choices to bring the deficit back to one. A Brotz single and another error scored two runs in the fifth to push Marist’s lead back out to three.
Saint Peter’s came back alive in the eighth inning. Down 6-3, a throwing error plated two runs to cut the deficit to one, putting redshirt freshman outfielder Louis D’Allesio on third and advancing senior outfielder Luke Schwartz to second. A double steal then put both runners in scoring position.
Junior left-hander Andrew Speranza proceeded to hit Fogg to load the bases with two outs before being removed for senior right-hander Caleb Kempler. With one out to get, Kempler pitched to a full count against junior outfielder RJ Azarieh, and got him to strike out swinging to strand all runners and prevent the Peacocks from breaking the game open.
Building off Kempler’s big strikeout, Marist’s offense exploded for four runs in the bottom of the eighth. A Rivera RBI single got the scoring started followed by a throwing error that scored two to make the score 9-5. A Lincoln RBI and a sac-fly from sophomore catcher Drew McGowan pushed the run total to double digits, and Kempler pitched the final inning to earn the save and complete the sweep.
The Red Foxes will look to continue their winning ways on Tuesday in a road non-conference matchup against Fairleigh Dickinson University. First pitch is set for 3 p.m.
Edited by Max Rosen and Mike Schiavone
Graphic by Xavier Angel
Photo from Marist Athletics
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