In the opening game of the MAAC Baseball Championship on Wednesday, Marist lost to the defending champion Fairfield Stags 6-3 behind a dominant performance by junior right-handed pitcher Ben Alekson. Alekson, who earned the MAAC Pitcher of the Year Award on Tuesday, tied John Signore’s program record for the most wins in a career with 22.
The Stowe, Vermont native tossed the conference’s fifth complete game of the season, yielding seven hits, three runs—two of which were earned—one walk and a hit by pitch with two strikeouts. The junior threw 78 strikes over 114 pitches and has now thrown six or more innings in 11 of his 15 starts.
“Benny gutted up and mixed three speeds and stayed ahead in a lot of counts and did a great job giving us the complete game in this heat even more,” said Fairfield head coach Bill Currier in a postgame interview with ESPN+. “He had to dig deeper, and he did a great job.”
Alekson was the expected starter for the No. 3 seeded Stags (28-21, 20-10 MAAC), but fourth-year head coach Lance Ratchford sent out a surprising starter for No. 6 seeded Marist (23-29, 17-13 MAAC): redshirt sophomore Andrew Fierro, who made just his sixth career start.
Despite mainly serving as a long reliever throughout his Poughkeepsie tenure, Fierro tossed 6.1 innings against Fairfield twelve days ago in his only career outing of at least five innings.
Ratchford’s plan, however, backfired in the first inning. Fierro opened with back-to-back walks; both runners advanced into scoring position on a double steal. Senior catcher JP Kuczik, a member of the 2025 MAAC All-Tournament team, singled through the right side to score both runners. They crossed the plate standing, thanks to the ball trickling past redshirt sophomore outfielder Chris Diaz’s glove, allowing Kuczik to advance to second. Though the hit prompted action in the Red Fox bullpen, Fierro escaped with just two runs yielded.
Kuczik tallied his 45th RBI, and third on the day, with a sacrifice fly in the home third. All-MAAC Rookie Team outfielder TJ Baer caught the line drive and, instead of attempting to throw out the speedy senior outfielder TJ Schmalzle at home, unsuccessfully tried to backpick senior outfielder Matthew Bucciero. The run, however, came unearned for Fierro because Schmalzle reached on a throwing error from senior shortstop AJ Brotz that forced senior first baseman Kyle Pollack off the bag. Brotz saved a run later in the frame with a diving backhanded stop to stop the bleeding.
On the other side of the mound, Alekson’s accuracy flourished. Entering play with an 8.4% walk percentage, Alekson painted 25 strikes on his first 34 pitches through three frames. Alekson worked from the stretch early, with 24 of those pitches coming with runners on base. Despite early noise in each of the first three innings, Marist came up empty until the fourth.
“We were just trying to throw as many strikes, get ahead, first pitches and mix everything: change up, slide, fastball pretty good,” said Alekson in a postgame interview with ESPN+. “I’m happy with it.”
Graduate student outfielder Nathan Lincoln opened the middle innings with a base hit for Marist before Diaz reached on a fielder’s choice and error by freshman infielder Ryan Paine. Baer then exemplified Ratchford’s bread and butter—small ball—with a sacrifice bunt that allowed Lincoln to score on a groundout by senior infielder Brady Steinert.
The Stags responded with a pair of their own in the bottom of the inning, beginning the retaliation with their third leadoff baserunner in the first four innings. Graduate outfielder Zach Stephenson walked, then stole second on a close play a batter later. After replay review, the umpiring staff upheld the call, allowing him to score on an RBI double off the bat of Paine.
The double ended Fierro’s day but not Fairfield’s offense. A wild pitch advanced Paine to third; he then scored on a Schmalzle sacrifice fly. The senior wore down Red Fox pitching by seeing 32 pitches over five plate appearances. Fierro faced Fairfield’s lineup twice, surrendering five runs, four of which were earned, on three hits and four walks with two strikeouts in 3.1 innings.
Back-to-back pitches scored the Red Foxes’ second run. With two outs in the fifth, Brotz collected his third hit in as many at bats on a triple, and sophomore infielder Noel Rivera drove him in with a double.
“He’s [Brotz] seeing the ball well this whole month,” said Ratchford during a midgame interview with ESPN+. “He got off to a slow start, but I think he’s playing his best baseball at the right time.”
Two innings later, Marist cut the deficit to two on a solo blast from sophomore utility Luke Monico. Both Alekson and Kuczik thought the pitch before caught Monico looking, but home plate umpire Tom Gandolfo’s called ball extended the at-bat.
Marist’s most frequently used pitcher, junior Andrew Speranza, kept Fairfield’s offense at bay until trouble struck again in the seventh. Stephenson doubled to the wall in right field to easily score Kuczik, but a successful relay gunned down sophomore outfielder Jake Haarde to help Speranza through the inning with just one run allowed. Speranza’s longest outing of the season allowed redshirt junior Bobby LeFevre to bridge the gap with a scoreless eighth.
Despite the impressive bullpen effort, none of it mattered due to the MAAC’s ERA leader’s extraordinary outing. With the victory, Fairfield will play No. 2 Niagara at 3 p.m. tomorrow as the Stags look to become the first team to repeat as MAAC baseball champions since Manhattan in 2012.
“Keep moving, keep winning games, keep throwing strikes, keep scoring runs,” said Alekson of the team’s mentality moving forward.
The Red Foxes will play to keep their season alive tonight against the loser of No. 4 Merrimack and No. 5 Canisius. The elimination game is slated for a 7 p.m. first pitch.
Edited by Max Rosen
Photo from Marist Athletics via Stockton Photo
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