Box Score March 20, 2009
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Charlotte, N.C. - The Fordham baseball team kicked off Atlantic 10 play with a bang, defeating the back-to-back defending A10 champions, the Charlotte 49ers, 13-1 in game one of the three-game series.
Fordham is now 5-11 (1-0 Atlantic 10) on the year while Charlotte drops to 11-5 (0-1 Atlantic 10).
"J.P. Mack did an outstanding job keeping guys off balance" remarks Fordham head coach Nick Restaino. "I'm proud of the job our guys did tonight as we put the pitching, hitting, defense together all in one game."
At the plate, every Fordham batter reached base safely at least once as freshman Brian Kownacki went 3-5 with three RBI while having one of Fordham's five doubles on the day. Senior Angelo Ponte also had a 3-5 day with two RBI, two runs and a double as senior Bobby DiNardo went 2-5 with two RBI, two runs and a double.
On the mound, starting pitcher J.P. Mack hurled 6.2 innings while giving up only one run on six scattered hits and one walk to improve to 2-2 on the season. Freshman Jordan Grangard came in relief to give the Rams 2.1 shutout innings while only surrendering two hits and one walk.
The Fordham bats struck first in the bottom of the third, putting the Rams up, 4-0. Freshman Nick Martinez started a two-out rally with the Rams' first hit of the game followed by a Danny Leach walk to put runners on first and second. Mike Mobbs stepped to the plate, knocking a single to left, scoring Martinez.
Fordham's top slugger Bobby DiNardo kept the runs coming, singling to left to score Leach. A wild pitch moved Mobbs and DiNardo into scoring position for senior catcher Angelo Ponte to bring them home with a single to right-center field.
The Rams tacked on two more runs in the top of the fourth inning to bring the Rams advantage to 6-0. The runs started coming in with an Alex Kenny base hit while Stephen McSherry found his way to second base on an error in left field, putting Kenny on third. Kenny would find his way across the plate on a wild pitch while McSherry came home on Leach's fourth triple of the season.
In the top of the fifth, the Rams brought in two more runs, increasing their lead to 9-0. DiNardo started the action with a double followed by a Ponte single to put runners on the corners. Ryan McCrann brought home DiNardo and put Ponte on third with his seventh double of the year. An Alex Kenny sacrifice fly was deep enough to bring in Ponte from third to close out the Rams scoring in the inning.
Mack was cruising on the mound until the seventh inning when he gave up a one-out solo homerun to Zane Williams for Charlotte's first and only run of the game. After giving up a single to left and issuing his first walk of the game, Mack's night came to an end. Freshman Jordan Grangard came in relief to get the final batter of the inning out with the help of freshman Brian Kownacki, whose diving play knocked the a ball up the middle to Martinez, who then gunned it over to DiNardo to get Justin Roland out at first.
The Fordham bats were not done as they brought in four more runs in the top of the ninth to cap off the scoring at 13-1. Mike Mobbs started off the inning with a walk and was moved to third on a Ponte double. Both runners were plated by pinch-hitter Ryan David's double down the left field line. Kenny drew an intentional walk to put runners on first and second for Kownacki's double that stayed just inside the fair line to score both runners.
Fordham and Charlotte square off on Saturday, March 21, at 2:00 PM before closing out the series on Sunday, March 22, at 12:00 PM.
