April 11, 2009
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Pittsburgh, Pa. - The Fordham baseball team used big bats and strong pitching to defeat Duquesne University, 10-2, in game one of the Saturday doubleheader, while the Fordham offense could not match the Dukes' output in game two with the Rams falling, 12-5, for the afternoon split.
Fordham (11-19, 7-4 Atlantic 10) started game one off with two runs in the first inning to take the early 2-0 lead. Things got underway with freshman Brian Kownacki's single to left-center field while he would come around to score on a Bobby DiNardo double to right. An error by Duquesne shortstop Derrik Zeroski put DiNardo on third for Michael Taddei to bring him home on a sacrifice fly.
Senior Mike Mobbs gave the Rams a 3-0 lead in the top of the second with his first homerun of the season.
The Dukes (7-24, 4-7 Atlantic 10) got one back in the bottom of the second before the Rams brought two more home in the top half of the third. Kownacki's single to left followed by the freshman stealing second set up Angelo Ponte's double down the left-field line to bring in the first Fordham run of the inning. Taddei cracked a double of his own to left to score Ponte and bring the Rams on the better end of a 5-1 score.
The Fordham bats did not stop as Bobby DiNardo's three-run homerun in the top of the fourth capped off a four-run inning for the Rams while Fordham brought in one more run on Ponte's second double of the game to bring in DiNardo in from second in the top of the seventh.
Duquesne added a run in the bottom of the eighth before freshman Jordan Grangard shut the Dukes' bats down to finish out the game giving up only one run on two hits in two innings pitched.
It was, yet again, another quality start out of senior J.P. Mack who went seven complete innings while giving up only one run on five hits, two walks while setting a new career high for strike-outs in a game with nine en route to improving his record on the season to 4-2.
Bobby DiNardo went 3-5 with three runs and four RBI as Brian Kownacki put together a 3-5, three run, one RBI performance at the plate with Mike Mobbs going 3-4 with a run and an RBI in the game.
Game two started on the upswing for the Dukes as they plated one run in the first while three doubles and two homeruns gave Duquesne six runs in the bottom of the third to put the Rams in an early 7-0 hole.
Fordham got two of those runs back, in the top of the fourth, on an inning that was started off on
Bobby DiNardo's tenth double of the year. After stealing third, DiNardo, along with
Mike Mobbs, who got on base on a walk, scored on a Duquesne throwing error.
The Dukes tacked on two more runs, one in the fifth and another in the top of the seventh while Kownacki stroked his first collegiate homerun to left-center field in the top of the fifth to bring the score to 9-4.
The Rams added another run, in the top of the eighth, with Chris Walker and Mike Mobbs knocking back-to-back, one out singles. Stephen McSherry singled to left to bring in Walker and put the Rams to within four of the Dukes.
Mark Tracy's second homerun of the game helped Duquesne score three more in the bottom of the eighth before Michael Pelekanos pitched three innings of one run ball for his first save of the season.
Fordham starter Jake Rabinowitz gave up seven runs on nine hits, three walks while striking out one to fall to 1-3 on the year. Duquesne starter Gary Pierpont improved to 2-5 on six innings pitched, giving up four runs, two earned, on five hits and two walks.
Bobby DiNardo led the way, once again, for the Fordham offence by going 2-5 with two runs scored while Chris Walker and Stephen McSherry each had multi-hit games.
Fordham and the Dukes will square off one final time on Sunday, April 12, at 12:00 PM.
NOTES: The game-one win was Fordham's first-ever road win against the Dukes... DiNardo's homerun now gives him 23 for his career to put him in sole possession of ninth place on the all-time career list while his 10 on the season now ties him for seventh all-time for single-season homeruns with Vincent Lumia (1997) and Jeremy Bourgeois (2005).
