Bronx, N.Y. – Despite a career-high seven strikeouts from Fordham starter
Mike Cowell, the Fordham baseball team was unable to hold on Friday night, falling to VCU by a 3-2 score at Houlihan Park after VCU scored twice in the eighth inning.
With the loss, Fordham falls to 18-16 overall, 7-5 in the Atlantic 10, while VCU improved to 23-15 on the year, 11-2 in the league.
With the game scoreless through three innings, Fordham got on the board first in the bottom of the fourth inning.
Mark Donadio led off with a ground rule double to left center and after a pair of outs, scored on an RBI-single by
Ryan Mahoney.
VCU then tied the game at one in the top of the sixth, when Darian Carpenter connected on solo home run to left field, his eighth of the season.
Fordham then went back on top, 2-1, in the bottom of the seventh inning, taking advantage of a VCU error. Mahoney roped a single to center with one out, where centerfielder Logan Farrar tried to slide and stop the ball from going to the wall. Farrar ended up knocking the ball away from his fellow outfielder, allowing Mahoney to reach third.
Reiss Knehr then put down a squeeze bunt, allowing Mahoney to score for the 2-1 lead.
Ryan Mahoney
VCU rallied back in the eighth inning to take a 3-2 lead. Fordham looked like they were going to get out of the jam, after a leadoff single by Farrar and two foul outs to first. Darian Carpenter and Brett Willett would keep the inning going, drawing back-to-back walks from Fordham reliever
Anthony DiMeglio. The next batter was Zac Ching, who then singled to center field off
Alvin Melendez, scoring Farrar and Carpenter for the lead.
VCU brought on Sam Donko, who was able to hold Fordham off the scoreboard over the final two innings for his tenth save of the season.
The loss spoiled a solid outing for Fordham starter
Mike Cowell, who received a no-decision in the game. Cowell threw six innings, allowing one run on three hits and tied a career-high with seven strikeouts. DiMeglio took the loss, falling to 0-1, allowing two runs over 1.2 innings of work. Melendez finished the final 1.1 innings, giving up a hit and striking out two.
At the plate, Mahoney was 2-for-4 with a run scored and an RBI, while
Matthew Kozuch had a base-hit in the first inning, extending his current hit streak to eight games.
The same two teams will match-up for game two of this series on Saturday at 1:00 PM.
