April 3, 2013

Bronx, N.Y. - One of the longest standing baseball rivalries in New York gets renewed on Wednesday, as the Fordham baseball team travels across the borough to face the Manhattan College Jaspers at Van Cortlandt Park in the Battle of the Bronx.

Since meeting at Yankee Stadium in 1923, the Rams and Jaspers have met 107 times with Fordham holding a 76-28-3 lead in the series. However, Manhattan has won each of the last three meetings, and four of the last five.

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SCOUTING MANHATTAN: The Jaspers are 10-14 on the season with a 3-3 mark in the MAAC. Similar to the Rams, the Jaspers have struggled a bit at the plate, hitting .235 as a team, while posting a 5.13 ERA on the mound.

Ramon Ortega leads the squad with a .289 batting average to go with 12 runs scored, four doubles, and 14 RBI, while Nick Camastro is hitting .277 with 15 runs scored, five doubles, and six stolen bases.

LAST TIME OUT: Fordham's Ryan McNally connected for the go-ahead RBI-double in top of the eighth inning, while Tim Swatek pitched 2.2 scoreless innings of relief, as the Fordham Rams snapped a seven-game skid, defeating the Saint Joseph's Hawks, 4-3, at Smithson Field in Merion Station, Pa.

The game started as a pitcher's duel between Fordham's Joseph Serrapica and Saint Joseph's Daniel Thorpe with each posting three scoreless innings to start the game.

Fordham then broke through with three runs in the fourth. Ryan McNally was hit by a pitch with one out and Sam Careccia singled to center to put runners at first and second. After a fly out, Ian Edmiston drew a walk to load the bases. Joseph DeVito then came through with a bases clearing triple to left, giving Fordham a 3-0 lead.

The Hawks battled back to even the score at three, with two runs in the sixth and one in the seventh. In the sixth, Brian O'Keefe hit a two-run home run to right off Fordham reliever Brett Kennedy, while Mike Muha had an RBI-double in the seventh.

Fordham though regained the lead in the top of the eighth, when Mike Mauri doubled to right center and scored on an RBI-double by McNally.

The Rams' Tim Swatek then shut the door on the Hawks, pitching 2.2 scoreless innings of relief to earn his first win of the season. He gave up only one hit over that stretch, while striking out two. Serrapica pitched five-plus innings, allowing one run on one hit, while Kennedy allowed two runs on four hits over 1.1 innings of relief.

At the plate, DeVito was 2-for-4 with a triple and three RBI, while McNally was 2-for-3 with a double and an RBI. Swatek also helped his own cause with two hits in the game.

UPCOMING GAMES: The Rams will travel to Atlanta this weekend for a three-game series against the Georgia State Panthers.