Forecasted rain that pushed first pitch up by 30 minutes peppered Heritage Financial Park, but a seven-run fourth inning kept No. 6 Marist’s season alive. A 10-0 lead faded in the blink of an eye, but the Red Foxes held on to eliminate No. 5 Canisius, 10-8 in a near three-and-a-half hour affair.
18 runs scored in the first six innings before the game’s final third totaled just one hit. Graduate student pitcher Jack Sullivan worked around trouble for the save, piggybacking sophomore pitcher Logan Scholl’s scoreless two innings. Senior pitcher Sam Staerker single-handledly kept Canisius alive with five scoreless innings in relief. He conceded four hits and two walks, while striking out seven on 81 pitches in his second-longest outing of the season.
Head coach Lance Ratchford’s bread and butter, small-ball, opened the huge inning: a five-pitch walk, stolen base, five-pitch walk, double steal and four-pitch walk. In an instant, small-ball turned into big-ball. Sophomore utility Luke Monico belted his second home run of the day, a grand slam to extend the Red Foxes’ advantage to 7-0. Entering today, the Ramsey, N.J. native never hit a collegiate homer; by the end of the day, Monico was responsible for the first two homers of the tournament.
“Huge punch,” noted Ratchford during interviews with ESPN+. “Thank God he hit it, man.”
Freshman shortstop Blake Herman’s error ended junior pitcher Joe LoPinto’s day. He surrendered eight runs — six of which were earned — three hits, three walks and two hit-by-pitches in 3.1 innings. Freshman pitcher Mark Rogers provided minimal relief, allowing an additional two earned runs before closing out the frame.
Graduate student outfielder Nathan Lincoln reached on an infield single that bordered Herman’s second error of the inning. Shortly after, more defensive struggles not found in the box score followed. Senior outfielder Andrew Marcello came up short on back-to-back fly balls, resulting in a two-RBI triple for redshirt sophomore outfielder Chris Diaz and an RBI double off the bat of sophomore infielder Noel Rivera. By the end of the frame, Marist led 10-0. Nothing worked for the Golden Griffins. It seemed over.
“They just got to fight. They gotta show some fight. You’re down, your backs are against the wall,” said Canisius head coach Matt Mazurek in a mid-game interview with ESPN+. “Are they going to fight, or are they gonna fold? We gotta fight.”
Canisius did just that. After a 7-0 loss to Merrimack less than two hours earlier, they ended Red Fox cruise control by unloading in the home fifth. They tacked on seven of their own after redshirt sophomore outfielder Justin Bremner started the frame with a hit-by-pitch. Junior infielder/outfielder Eric Weeks and redshirt freshman infielder/outfielder Bennett Cox each produced singles, followed by an RBI groundout from senior infielder Mason Cisco. A redshirt junior catcher Thomas Zwirecki double and junior infielder JC Spinosa base hit ended senior Jake Burt’s day. He allowed six earned runs on five hits and two hit-by-pitches in 1.1 innings. Freshman Jason Bassett did not record an out, ceding base hits to Herman and Marcello, in addition to a balk that brought in a run.
Flawless defense from Marist’s first four innings turned on a dime, highlighted by two outfield errors. The Red Foxes finished with three on the evening, an equal amount to Canisus. Ratchford called redshirt freshman pitcher Aiden Vargas to stop the bleeding; he struck out back-to-back batters to escape the frame.
In the sixth, senior infielder AJ Brotz fumbled away a chance for a double play, settling for a fielder’s choice instead that left Cox on the basepaths. He stole second and scored on Cisco’s RBI single, cutting the Marist lead to a pair. After Marist scored 10 unanswered runs, Canisius retaliated with eight of their own.
After a three-hit performance five hours prior in an opening round loss to Fairfield, Brotz opened the game with a single, followed by back-to-back hit-by-pitches. Rivera bunted for a base hit with the bases loaded to drive in Brotz, and Lincoln scored on a throwing error from LoPinto. Freshman infielder Connor Lawrence forced an error on a run-scoring bunt of his own to extend the lead to three. Only Brotz’s single left the infield during the inning.
“It all started with small-ball: showing the bunts, creating chaos on the bases, making them play baseball and make plays,” said Ratchford during an in-game interview with ESPN+.
Behind game one’s same defensive alignment, redshirt junior pitcher Tyler Hartley took the ball with a lead for his 35th career start, the second in a postseason game. In a similar situation last season, Hartley tossed six scoreless innings against Siena. This year’s postseason game gave him early trouble on the basepaths, but he escaped each jam. After the big inning, Ratchford opted to save Hartley for later in the tournament if Marist makes it. He yielded five hits in three scoreless innings on 57 pitches.
Despite turning to five relievers, none of them threw more than 28 pitches. Hartley, redshirt sophomore pitcher Andrew Fierro and junior Andrew Speranza will be the only three pitchers unavailable tomorrow with each throwing north of 50 pitches.
“This team is way too good to be in this spot,” said Monico in a postgame interview with ESPN+. “We just got to keep stacking these wins and keep it rolling.”
Marist will play again tomorrow for game six of the tournament. They can face either No. 2 Niagara, No. 3 Fairfield or No. 4 Merrimack. First pitch is scheduled for 7 p.m.
Edited by Mike Schiavone
Graphic by Quinn DiFiore
Photo From Marist Athletics
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