Box Score May 6, 2012
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Bronx, N.Y. -
Sunday's series finale between Fordham and Rhode Island was a gut check for Fordham. A win and the playoff hunt is still there, while a loss, would seriously hurt the team's chances of making the Atlantic 10 Championship, which will be hosted at Houlihan Park. Fordham came up big on Sunday and passed the gut check behind performances from Ryan Phelan, Chris Pike, and Jeremy Adel, and won the series with a 7-5 win.
With the win, Fordham improves to 21-30 overall, 12-9 in the Atlantic 10, while Rhode Island fell to 27-21 on the season, 12-6 in the conference.
The scoring opened in the bottom of the third inning, when Fordham's Ryan Phelan led off with a solo home run to left, the first of his career.
Fordham then sent nine men to the plate in the bottom of the fourth inning, and scored four times to take a 5-0 lead. Ryan Maghini started the frame with a single and stole second. Ryan Lee followed with an RBI-single for a 2-0 lead. After a fly out, Brian Kownacki singled to center, which was followed by a single by Matthew Cianci that scored Lee. Phelan came up big again as he lined a shot over the rightfielder for a two-run triple, scoring Kownacki and Cianci for a 5-0 lead.
Rhode Island scratched across two runs in the top of the fifth inning off Fordham starter Chris Pike to cut the lead to 5-2. The inning was highlighted by an RBI-single by Joe Fortunato.
Fordham regained the five-run lead in the bottom of the sixth, scoring twice for a 7-2 edge. Kownacki started the inning with a walk and moved to second on a passed ball. One out later, Phelan doubled home Kownacki, and then
Rob McCunney singled home Phelan for the five-run edge.
Rhode Island wouldn't go away though, scoring three times in the top of the seventh, which included a two-run double by Jeff Cammans and an RBI-single by Fortunato, to cut the lead to 7-5.
Fordham then called on Jeremy Adel for the two-inning save. After getting through the eighth, Adel gutted out a wild ninth, as the first batter, Fortunato, lined a shot off Adel's leg for an infield hit, which stunned the Fordham right-hander. Adel stayed in the game, and after a fielder's choice recorded the first out, he took another hit off the chest, but recovered in time to throw out Kevin Stenhouse at first base. Adel then got Milan Adams to fly out to right to end the game in Fordham's favor.
Adel picked up his sixth save of the season, allowing two hits in two innings of relief. Chris Pike (4-1) earned the win, as he gave up three earned runs on seven hits with four strikeouts over 6.1 innings.
At the plate, Phelan finished a single shy of the cycle, going 3-for-4 with a double, a triple, a home run, two runs scored and a career-high four RBI. McCunney also registered a multi-hit game, going 2-for-3 with an RBI.
The Fordham baseball team will next be in action on Saturday, May 12th, when the Rams travel to Chestnut Hill, Massachusetts to start a two-game series at Boston College.
