Box Score March 31, 2009
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Old Westbury, N.Y. - The Fordham baseball team could not find their stroke as the Rams' bats could only muster up two hits against the New York Institute of Technology in the 9-2 loss to the Bears.
With the loss, the Rams drop to 9-14 while NYIT improves to 6-15 on the year.
The Rams took advantage of two Bears errors, in the bottom of the second, to take a 1-0 lead. The inning began with Michael Taddei drawing a lead-off walk. Shane Fox's ground ball to third looked to be a perfect double-play ball, but NYIT third baseman Sebastian Grazziani's throw was off the mark and ended up in right field to bring Taddei and Fox safely aboard.
Stephen McSherry's come-backer to starting pitcher Louie Bernardi also looked like it would result in a double-play, but the transition throw from shortstop Brian Smith sailed over the first baseman's head, allowing McSherry to reach second on the throwing error with Taddie scoring from second on the play.
In the bottom half of the frame, NYIT brought home a run to tie the score, 1-1, off of two hits and a sacrifice bunt. The Bears added five more to take a 6-1 lead in the bottom of the fifth, capped off with a two-run homerun to left field by Denten Neil.
NYIT plated two more runs, to go up 8-1, in the bottom of the sixth. With two outs and runners on second and third, George Carroll hit a ball in the hole between second and third that a diving Brian Kownacki stopped from going out into the infield, though his throw to first went over Taddie's head, allowing the runner from second to come around and score.
The Bears would bring in one more run, though it could have been worse in the bottom of the eighth, as the Rams defense opted for a double-play with the bases loaded and no one out instead of trying to get the runner coming home.
Senior Bobby DiNardo brought in a run, in the top of the ninth, with his ninth homerun of the season, but that was all the Rams could do before the final out. With that homerun, DiNardo moves into a ninth-place tie on the Fordham all-time career homerun list with Mike O'Connell (1974-77) with 22 career homers.
Senior John Young takes his first loss of the season after giving up five runs, four earned, on five hits, one walk while only getting one out with a strike out in the fifth inning. NYIT starter Louie Bernardini threw eight innings of two run ball, one earned, while only giving up two hits for his first win of the season. Bobby DiNardo and Stephen McSherry had the only hits for the Rams.
The Fordham baseball team returns to Houlihan Park on Wednesday, April 1, as they host Fairfield University at 4:00 PM.
