On Friday, two high-octane offenses duked it out in the winner’s bracket final. Marist and Iona went back and forth throughout the contest, but the Red Foxes took down the Gaels, 12-7. Marist is now one win away from repeating as MAAC champions, while Iona now has to win the loser’s bracket and defeat Marist twice to capture the title.
“This game [was] the most important game,” said Marist head coach Joe Ausanio. “Our kids stepped up and made things happen all game.”
The 2026 MAAC Player of the Year—senior outfielder Peyton Pusey—led the way for Marist with four hits, five RBI’s and a huge, three-run home run in the bottom of the sixth inning to put the game out of reach. Freshman utility Livia Wiltsie accrued three hits, including a solo blast in the third inning.
The Red Foxes and the Gaels went to war at Gartland Field; the game featured a combined 19 runs on 27 hits. Each time one team scored, the other responded. Each Red Fox recorded at least one hit, while seven of Iona’s hitters recorded a knock. For the Gaels, freshman outfielder Rachael Morales hit two home runs and drove in three runs in a three-hit day.
On April 3, redshirt sophomore pitcher Stella Blanchard surrendered just one run in a complete game effort against the Gaels. Iona matched that run total on one swing; Morales lifted a leadoff home run over the fence in right field to provide the Gaels with early momentum. Blanchard struggled to finish innings in 3.2 innings of work; four of Iona’s five runs that came around to score on Blanchard occurred with two outs.
Pusey created chaos in the first inning to help level the game at one; the senior laced a leadoff double off freshman pitcher Melissa Gordon. Senior catcher Isabella Manory brought her classmate home with an RBI double of her own.
Junior outfielder Samantha Rogers roped a leadoff double to begin the inning. A batter later, freshman utility McKenna Manley broke the tie with an RBI single. Freshman first baseman/outfielder Annabelle Geiser followed Manley up and hit a sharp ground ball that ricocheted off sophomore infielder Sara Piña. In Thursday’s game against Sacred Heart, Geiser tallied two hits and has wreaked havoc on the bases all season.
“I’m so impressed,” Pusey said of the freshmen class. “I have never seen a freshmen class with so much composure and a freshman class that lives up to the moment like they do.”
After the freshmen got in scoring position, the seniors brought them in. Pusey drove in a run via fielder’s choice and Manory lined a single off the glove of Gordon. The ball trickled far enough away from Gordon to allow Manory to beat the throw, extendong the lead to 4-1 and end the freshman’s outing. Junior pitcher Allison Hoppe entered and induced an inning-ending groundout.
In the top of the third, Iona used three consecutive singles with two outs to get within a run. Senior infielder Brianna Fischer fisted an RBI single to left and came around to score on senior catcher Brooke Acker’s run-scoring single to center field. Pusey delivered a perfect throw to the plate in an attempt to nab Fischer at the plate, but the Iona shortstop touched home plate just before Manory applied the tag. Ausanio challenged the call but it was upheld.
In response, the Red Foxes relied on a mixture of offensive styles. Sophomore catcher/utility Sienna Kunze and freshman utility Livia Wiltsie powered back-to-back home runs to re-generate the three-run lead. With two outs, Geiser tapped a routine grounder to shortstop, but her long strides enabled her to put pressure on the defense and force a throwing error by Fischer. A batter later, Pusey’s speed enabled her to reach first base on an infield single and extend the lead to 7-3; through the first two games of the MAAC Championships, Pusey has three infield singles.
“When you build your team, you try to have a little bit of everything,” said Ausanio. “Speed is one thing that is non-negotiable for me. I really love to have team speed.”
The Gaels continued to make it tough on Blanchard in the fourth, as they plated two more runs with two outs. Piña doubled to left-center and Acker smacked a single off the arm of Blanchard to end her outing and get within two runs. Ausanio inserted junior pitcher/outfielder Anna Sidlowski, and she induced an inning-ending popup on one pitch.
In the bottom half, Marist retaliated once more by way of a sacrifice fly on a nine-pitch at-bat from Rogers. The offensive onslaught came to a halt in the fifth inning, but Morales etched her name back into the contest. The freshman launched a two-run blast off Sidlowski to bring Iona within one run once again, but Marist had one final counter ready.
After Wiltsie scored on a fielder’s choice from Manley, Pusey stepped up to the plate with runners on second and third and two outs. Despite the open base, Iona head coach Andy Russo decided to pitch to Pusey, and she made him pay. In a full count, Hoppe left a changeup in the middle of the zone and the senior took care of the rest. Pusey obliterated a three-run blast to balloon Marist’s lead to five and put the game away.
“[Andy Russo] has been doing this a long time, and with the MAAC Player of the Year up, I don’t know if I’m pitching to her there,” said Ausanio. “Maybe he felt like he had a good matchup, but I’m just really happy for Peyton there.”
“There’s not a lot of times where I know it’s out, but that was one of those times where I knew,” Pusey said. “I was filled with so much excitement because I knew we were taking that game.”
Marist is now set to face off with the winner of the loser’s bracket in Saturday’s championship round. The Red Foxes just need to win one game to be crowned MAAC champions. The first pitch is TBD.
Edited by Max Rosen
Graphic and photo by Jaylen Rizzo
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