April 16, 2011
Box Score
Bronx, N.Y. -
For those in attendance at Houlihan Park on Saturday, the Fordham-George Washington game had a familiar feeling to it with the game tied and heading for extra innings. Then, it turned into déjà vu, as Fordham's Tim Swatek connected for a walk-off single to score Chris Walker for a 5-4 extra inning win over the Colonials, the second straight walk-off win for the Rams this weekend and three consecutive comeback win.
With the win, Fordham extends its win streak to four in a row, improving to 21-13 on the season, 5-3 in the Atlantic 10, while George Washington falls to 10-25 overall, 3-5 in the league. The Rams have now matched their win total from a year ago.
George Washington jetted out to a 3-0 lead by the top of the fourth inning, manufacturing one run in the third and two in the fourth. In the third, Jordan Berry reached on an infield single and stole second. After a sacrifice bunt moved him to third, Berry scored on a sacrifice fly to center by Owen Beightol for a 1-0 lead.
Then in the fourth, the Colonials got the first two batters to reach base with both coming around to score on RBI-singles by Ollie Mattig and Brett Bowers for a 3-0 edge.
Fordham rallied back in the bottom of the fourth, scoring four times for a 4-3 lead. Ryan David began the rally with a bunt single to third, and advanced to third on a single by Chris Walker. Ryan Lee then lined a double to the left center gap, scoring David for the Rams' first run of the game. After a RBI-ground out by Joe Russo made it 3-2, Brian Kownacki drew a walk and then scored on a two-run double down the right field line by Ryan Maghini, giving Fordham a 4-3 lead.
The score remained that way until the seventh, as George Washington's Bowers reached on an error, was sacrificed to second, and scored on a single by Stephen Oswald to knot the game at four.
As the rain started to fall at Houlihan Park, the Colonials had two prime opportunities to take the lead. First in the eighth, with two on and two out, Beightol hit a sharp ground ball toward the right side hole, but Fordham's Walker made a diving stop at first and flipped to Nick Martinez for the final out of the eighth inning.
Then, in the top of the 10th inning, the Colonials strung together three straight singles to load the bases with no outs. Fordham's Martinez would come up with a strikeout of Berry for the first out of the inning, before giving way to freshman Jonathan Reich. Reich followed with a strikeout of Bowers and a line out to right by Beightol to keep the game tied at four all.
Fordham went to work quickly in their half of the tenth, as Walker connected for a leadoff single to left and moved to second on a wild pitch. Lee then laid down a sacrifice bunt to get Walker to third, setting up the stage for freshman Tim Swatek. Swatek then lined the second pitch from George Washington reliever Kenny O'Brien down the left field line, scoring Walker for the second straight walk-off win by the Rams.
Reich (3-0) received the win in relief for Fordham, posting one strikeout in two-thirds of an inning, while Martinez threw three scoreless innings of six-hit relief with a career-high three strikeouts. Fordham starter Chris Pike threw the first 6.1 innings, allowing just one earned run on eight hits with three walks and six strikeouts.
At the plate, Walker was 3-for-4 with two runs scored, extending his hit streak to 15 games, while Maghini was 2-for-4 with a double and two RBI, extending his hit streak to nine contests. David and Kownacki also had two hits and a run scored each in the game.
The same two teams will meet on Sunday for the series finale at Houlihan Park with game time set for 1:00 PM.
