Baseball Takes on Fairfield & Columbia in Mid-Week Contests

Bronx, N.Y. – Following a series sweep of Saint Joseph's, the Fordham baseball team takes a season-high five-game win streak into this week's mid-week games against Fairfield on Tuesday and Columbia on Wednesday.  The Rams have won 10 of their last 12 contests to put their overall record at 18-13 on the year, 7-4 in the Atlantic 10.
 
Fairfield is also on a five-game win streak heading into Tuesday's showdown, and enter the game with a 17-14 record following a series sweep of Saint Peter's.  Columbia is 9-21 overall after snapping a six-game losing streak with a win over Cornell.  Also, the Columbia game time start is now 5:00 PM with colder temperatures in the forecast for Wednesday night.
 
PROBABLE STARTERS/GAME COVERAGE
Tuesday – RHP Mike Cowell (0-2, 5.14) vs. TBA // Live Stats | Follow on Twitter @FordhamBaseball
Wednesday – RHP Brian Weissert (1-2, 5.09) vs. TBA // Live Video | Live Audio | Live Stats | Follow on Twitter @FordhamBaseball
 
SERIES HISTORY: Tuesday will be the 53rd all-time meeting between Fordham and Fairfield with the Rams holding a 27-25 edge in the series.  Fairfield has won three of the last four meetings, including an 8-5 decision at Houlihan Park last season.  Fordham's last win at Fairfield came in 2011.  Wednesday resumes one of the longest college baseball series between Fordham and Columbia, which dates back to 1884.  It will be the 127^th all-time meeting with Fordham holding a 72-52-2 lead in the series.  Fordham won last year's meeting at Columbia by a 4-1 final score.
 
LAST TIME OUT: Heading into the baseball series finale on Saturday between the Fordham Rams and the Saint Joseph's Hawks, fans wondered what was left to see after a walk-off home run on Thursday and a shutout win on Friday at Houlihan Park.  The answer was a walk-off pickoff by sophomore catcher Justin Bardwell, as he got Matt Cuppari leaning off first base with Brian Goulard applying the tag, giving Fordham a 2-1 win and the series sweep over the Hawks.
 
The game was a pitcher's duel from the start between Fordham's Jimmy Murphy and Saint Joseph's Lucas Rollins, as each opened with five shutout innings.  Murphy retired 13 batters in a row at one point, but that streak, as well as the scoreless game, ended in the top of the sixth with a solo home run by Deon Stafford, Jr., to right field for his fifth of the season.
 
Rollins was also rolling along until the sixth, allowing just two hits over the first five innings.  However, with one out in the sixth, Matthew Kozuch doubled to center with Jake Baker being hit by a pitch, giving Fordham runners at first and second.  Tim Brennan came on to relieve Rollins, but ended up walking Mark Donadio to load the bases.  Brennan would strike out Justin Bardwell for the second out, but he hit Matt Tarabek with a pitch to force in Kozuch for the tying run.
 
Then in the seventh, the Hawks were primed to re-gain the lead, loading the bases with one.  Murphy buckled down and got Peter Sitaras to ground into a 1-2-3 double play to end the inning without any damage.

The score remained tied at one until the bottom of the eighth, when Fordham loaded the bases once again on singles by Kozuch and Baker and a Donadio hit by pitch.  With a 2-1 count on Bardwell, Brennan hit him with a pitch to force in the go-ahead run for the Rams.  That would be all the Rams would get, as Brennan retired the next three batters to head to the ninth.
 
Alvin Melendez came on to relieve Murphy for Fordham and promptly got a pair of fly outs for the first two outs of the inning.  Pinch-hitter Matt Cuppari kept the Hawks alive with a single to right, but two pitches into the next batter, Bardwell threw behind Cuppari at first with Brian Goulard applying the tag for the pickoff and the final out of the game.
 
Murphy evened his record at 4-4 on the season with the win, as he allowed one run on five hits with seven strikeouts, while Melendez earned his third save of the year.  At the plate, Kozuch was 2-for-3 with a double and two runs scored, with Tarabek finishing 1-for-3 with an RBI. 

RAMS EARN WEEKLY ACCOLADES: The Atlantic 10 Conference announced its weekly baseball awards on Monday with two Rams picking up weekly accolades, as sophomore pitcher Reiss Knehr (Glen Head, N.Y.)  was named the conference's Pitcher of the Week, while freshman Kyle Martin (Oceanside, N.Y.) was selected as co-Rookie of the Week.  In addition to the conference accolades, Knehr was also one of seven players to be named Collegiate Baseball National Player of the Week.
 
Knehr improved to 3-3 on the season, allowing just one hit and two walks over 8.1 innings of work with a career-high 16 strikeouts in a 5-0 win over Saint Joseph's on Friday.  The 16 strikeouts were the most by a Ram since Jack McQuade struck out 17 in a game against CCNY on April 12, 1956, and tied for the sixth-most in a game by a Ram pitcher with Johnny Murphy, who struck out 16 against Columbia on April 23, 1929.

Knehr took a no-hitter into the seventh inning, and had a streak of 11 straight strikeouts against the Hawks.  The 11 consecutive strikeouts were the most by a college pitcher since Navy's Luke Gillingham struck out the first 12 batters at North Carolina A&T on February 13, 2015.  The strikeout streak and the no-hit bid ended on a leadoff single by Deon Stafford, Jr. in the seventh inning.
 
Martin earned a pair of relief wins this week, improving to 5-1 on the season.  The five wins are currently tied for second in the Atlantic 10.  Against Siena, Martin came in to the game with one out and the tying run at the plate in a 6-3 game.  Martin would get the next two outs and pitch another scoreless inning to get credit for the win.  On Thursday, he threw a scoreless ninth inning to keep Fordham within one, trailing 3-2 to Saint Joseph's, and was the beneficiary of Jason Lundy's game-winning two-run home run, getting his second win of the week.

DEFENDING THE "HOU": The Rams are out to a 13-2 start in 15 home games this season, continuing a winning trend at Fordham's Houlihan Park.  Fordham has posted a winning home record in each of the last seven seasons, and since 2012, when Coach Leighton took over, Fordham is 89-54 at home, good for a .622 winning percentage The 13-2 mark is also Fordham's best start at home since 1994.  The 1994 squad finished with an 18-4 home record.
 
WHO'S NEXT: Following the two mid-week games, Fordham has another big conference series at home, as VCU rolls in for a three-game set, April 21-23.  Games times are set for 6:00 PM, 1:00 PM and 12:00 PM on Friday, Saturday, and Sunday, respectively.