St. Bonaventure, N.Y. – The Fordham baseball team needed their best performance of the season on Thursday to keep their playoff hopes alive, as they faced St. Bonaventure's Aaron Phillips, who was 9-0 this season. The Rams pulled through with flying colors as
Justin Bardwell had the go-ahead RBI-single in top of the eighth inning, while
Jimmy Murphy tossed his third complete game of the season, as Fordham topped the Bonnies, 2-1, at Fred Handler Park.
With the win, Fordham has won eight of its last nine games, and improving the Rams to 26-23 overall, 10-11 in the Atlantic 10. St. Bonaventure moved to 25-19 on the year, 14-7 in the league.
Fordham started off things with a bang, as
Jason Lundy connected on a solo home run to left, his fifth of the season for a 1-0 lead.
The score stayed that way until the bottom of the seventh, when St. Bonaventure tied the game at one. David Vaccaro led off with a single to the left side and was sacrificed to second. Tommy LaCongo then singled to right to score Vaccaro and tie the game at one.
Fordham answered back with a run in the eighth to go back ahead, 2-1. With two outs,
Mark Donadio doubled down the left field line, while
Luke Stampfl was intentionally walked.
Justin Bardwell then singled to center, scoring Donadio from second to re-take the lead.
Jimmy Murphy
That margin was enough for Fordham starter
Jimmy Murphy (6-7), who threw his third complete game of the season, allowing one run on five hits with six strikeouts.
At the plate, Lundy was 2-for-4 with a home run, while Bardwell was 1-for-4 with an RBI. Donadio was 1-for-2 with a double, a walk and a run scored with
Alvin Melendez and
Ryan Mahoney recording the final two hits of the afternoon.
The same two teams will match up for game two of this series on Friday at noon.
