Baseball Travels to Albany for Mid-Week Match-Up

In its lone mid-week contest, the Fordham baseball team travels to the state capital on Wednesday afternoon for a matinee showdown with the Albany Great Danes.  Game time is set for 2:00 PM, after the game was moved from Tuesday due to impending weather.
 
PROBABLE STARTERS/GAME COVERAGE:
Fordham (11-13) – RHP Luke Stampfl (0-0, 6.75) vs. Albany (8-12) - LHP Brian Paulino (1-0, 2-16) // Twitter Feed - @FordhamBaseball | Live Stats | Live Video
 
SERIES HISTORY:  The Rams and Great Danes have met four times, all of which have come since 2011.  Albany has won three of the four meetings, sweeping a doubleheader in 2011 (4-3, 6-4) and taking an extra-inning affair in 2012 (7-6 – 10 inns.).  Fordham won the last meeting in 2014 by a score of 8-2.
 
LAST TIME OUT: It was a milestone day at Houlihan Park on Saturday, as the Fordham baseball team swept a doubleheader from NJIT by scores of 2-0 and 3-1, as the Rams earned three victories in the four-game series with the Highlanders.
 
In game one, Fordham's Kirk Haynes, Jr. threw his first career shutout and tied a career-high with nine strikeouts, as the Rams earned a 2-0 victory.  The win was a milestone for head coach Kevin Leighton as it was his 100^th coaching victory at Fordham and his 300^th overall.
 
Fordham opened the scoring in the first inning, as Joseph Runco led off with a single and stole second.  After he moved to third on a balk, Runco scored on a ground out by Jason Lundy.
 
The scored stayed at 1-0 until the eighth inning, when Fordham added an insurance run.  Joseph DeVito opened the frame with a walk, and advanced to third on a ground out and a wild pitch.  After a walk to Lundy, Ryan McNally singled to left, scoring DeVito from third.
 
That was all the run support Haynes (2-0) needed as he tossed his first career complete game shutout.  He allowed just three hits and one walk, while tying a career-high with nine strikeouts.  NJIT's Bryan Haberstroh took the loss, falling to 0-3, as he threw seven innings of two-hit ball, giving up just two runs with three strikeouts.
 
In game two, Fordham's Joseph Serrapica threw his second career complete game and had five strikeouts in a 3-1 win over the Highlanders in seven innings.
 
NJIT got on the board in the first on an RBI-double from Stefan Halibej, scoring Jesse Uttendorfer, who reached on a single.
 
The second major milestone for the Rams on Saturday also came in the first inning, as Runco led off with an infield single for his 200^th career hit, becoming the 14^th player in the 157 years of Fordham baseball to reach that plateau.  The hit also extended Runco's hit streak to 12 games, which is now a new career-long.

 
Though the Rams didn't capitalize on that milestone, they did rally for three runs in the second inning to take a 3-1 lead.  Fordham loaded the bases with no outs on a Luke Stampfl hit by pitch, a Matthew Kozuch single, and a Mark Donadio infield single.  The Highlanders got the next two outs, but Pat Gardner worked a walk to force in a run and tie the game.  Runco then slashed a two-run single to right center, scoring Kozuch and Donadio.
 
The scored remained at 3-1 behind a strong pitching effort by Fordham starter Joseph Serrapica.  In the seventh, he got in a touch of trouble, as the Highlanders had runners at second and third with one out.  NJIT's Evan Pietronico then hit a hard chopper back to the mound which Serrapica snagged out of the air and ran down the runner at third for the tag out.  Halibej followed with a fly out to right to end the game, giving Fordham the 3-1 victory.
 
Serrapica (1-4) earned the win, as he threw his second career complete game and tied a career-long outing by tossing seven innings and scattering seven hits with five strikeouts.  At the plate, Runco was 2-for-3 with a stolen base and two RBI, while Donadio also had a pair of hits.
 
HAYNES NAMED ATLANTIC 10 PITCHER OF THE WEEK (3/28):  The Atlantic 10 Conference announces it weekly baseball awards on Monday, and Fordham junior pitcher Kirk Haynes, Jr. was selected as the conference's Pitcher of the Week for the second straight week.
 
Haynes continued his stellar pitching on Saturday against NJIT, when he tossed his first career complete game shutout against the Highlanders.  He allowed just three hits and a walk, while tying a career-high with nine strikeouts.  It was the first complete game shutout for the Rams since Brett Kennedy tossed a shutout at Rhode Island in April 2014.
 
To date, Haynes has a 2-0 record with one save and a 1.93 ERA in 32.2 innings pitched.  He has 29 strikeouts on the season and is holding batters to a .159 batting average.  In his six appearances in the month of March, he has a 1.03 ERA over 26.1 innings with 24 strikeouts.
 
WHO'S NEXT:  Fordham opens Atlantic 10 play this weekend, as the Rams host the Richmond Spiders at Houlihan Park, April 1-3.  Game times are 4:00 PM on Friday, 2:00 PM on Saturday, and noon on Sunday.