Box Score Feb. 28, 2012
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Bronx, N.Y. -
In what is now the earliest home opener in its 152-year history, the Fordham baseball team got a career performance from senior Daniel Munday, as he set single game career-highs in innings and strikeouts in a 5-3 victory over the Fairfield Stags at Houlihan Park on Tuesday.
With the win, Fordham improves to 2-5 on the season, while Fairfield drops to 3-2.
Fordham quickly gave Munday some run support in the first inning, putting two runs on the board. Tim Swatek drew a one-out walk, and scored on an RBI-double by Ryan Lee, with Lee taking third on the throw home. One out later, Mike Mauri continued his strong start to the season with an RBI-single to center, scoring Lee to give Fordham a 2-0 lead.
The Stags scored their opening run in the fourth, cutting the Rams' lead in half. With two outs, Ryan Donovan reached on an error, which allowed Larry Cornelia to score. Cornelia had opened the frame with a single, and stolen second base.
The Rams got that run back in the sixth, as Ryan Maghini connected on a solo home run to left, his second of the season.
Fordham added another run in the seventh to make it, 4-1, when Brian Kownacki doubled home Ryan Phelan, who had also reached on a double.
The Rams extended the lead to 5-1 in the eighth, as
David Judisky hit a solo home run to right, the first of his career.
The rest of the game was all Munday, as he struck out a career-high eight batters, and threw a career-long 8.2 innings. He almost went the distance with two on, one run in, and two outs in the ninth. He got Mark Skrapits to roll a ground ball right back to him, but the ball went under Munday's glove, allowing another run to score, making it, 5-3. Jeremy Adel then came on to relieve Munday, and got Mike Bennett to fly out on the first pitch to record his first career save.
Munday (1-0) picked up his first win of the season, and fifth of his career, allowing one earned run on five hits with eight strikeouts in 8.2 innings. At the plate, Phelan was 2-for-3 with a double, while Maghini was 2-for-3 with a home run.
Fairfield's E.J. Ashworth (0-1) took the loss, allowing two runs on two hits in three innings of work, while Larry Cornelia led the offense with three hits, two runs scored, and two stolen bases.
The Fordham baseball team will next be in action on Wednesday, February 29th, when the Rams host Fairleigh Dickinson at Houlihan Park, beginning at 3:00 PM.
