Baseball Renews Series with Yale on Wednesday

Bronx, N.Y. – The Fordham baseball team renews an old series history this week, as the Rams host the Yale Bulldogs on Wednesday at Houlihan Park with first pitch set for 6:00 PM.
 
Fordham (18-18, 7-7 A10) comes into the contest after a rough week that saw the Rams go 0-5, which including three tight losses to Atlantic 10 leader VCU.  Yale (23-15, 13-3 Ivy) on the other hand comes in hot, having won four of their last five, which included taking three of four games from Dartmouth.
 
PROBABLE STARTERS/GAME COVERAGE
RHP Marc Bisogno (0-0, 5.91) vs. LHP Thomas Espig (0-0, 5.11) // Live Video | Live Audio | Live Stats | Follow on Twitter @FordhamBaseball
 
SERIES HISTORY: Wednesday will be the 65th all-time meeting between Fordham and Yale with the Rams holding a 34-30 edge in the series.  The series dates back to 1870, but the two teams have not faced each other since 1985.  Yale has won the three most recent meetings from 1983-85.  Fordham's last win over Yale came on May 5^th, 1972.
 
LAST TIME OUT: VCU's Steven Carpenter singled home pinch runner Alex Gransback in the top of the tenth inning, while Matt Jamer stranded the tying run on base in the bottom of the frame, giving the VCU Rams a 4-3 win over the Fordham Rams in 10 innings, to complete a baseball sweep at Houlihan Park on Sunday.
 
For the second straight day, VCU struck first in the top of the third inning, when Darian Carpenter connected on a two-run home run to left, his second of the series and ninth of the season.
 
Fordham cut the deficit to 2-1 in the fourth inning, as Justin Bardwell doubled down the left field line, moved to third on a single by Luke Stampfl, and scored on a single by Ryan Mahoney.
 
VCU answered right back, going back up by two, in the fifth.  Brett Willett had an RBI-single to score Steven Carpenter, who was hit by a pitch and moved to second on a ground out.
 
The score stayed that way until the eighth, when Fordham rallied to tie the game at three.  With two on and two out, Brian Goulard hit a ball to center that VCU's Logan Farrar dove for and missed, allowing Mahoney and Mark Donadio to score on a two-run triple.

The game remained tied at three, forcing extra innings.  VCU capitalized in the tenth, going ahead by a 4-3 count.  With two outs, Dylan Isquirdo and Farrar reached base on back-to-back singles off Fordham reliever Shane McDonald, which brought in Brandon Martin from the bullpen to face Steven Carpenter.  Carpenter then singled up the middle to score pinch runner Alex Gransback from second for a 4-3 lead.
 
Fordham had one last chance in the bottom of the tenth, as Bardwell singled to left and was sacrificed to second by Stampfl.  Matt Jamer then entered the game from the VCU bullpen and struck out Mahoney for the second out, while getting Goulard to ground out to first to end the game.

For Fordham, Bardwell was 3-for-5 with a double and a run scored, while Goulard was 2-for-5 with a double, a triple, and two RBI.  Mahoney also finished with a pair of hits and an RBI in the game.  McDonald (0-1) took the loss in relief, allowing one run on two hits in 2.1 innings of relief with two strikeouts.  Starter Reiss Knehr went the first five innings, giving up three runs on six hits with three walks and six strikeouts.

WHO'S HOT: Senior Mark Donadio is hitting .410 over his last 11 games with five runs scored, five doubles, three stolen bases, and a .489 on-base percentage… Senior Ryan Mahoney is batting .281 in his last 12 games, scoring five runs to go with a double, a triple, a home run, and seven RBI… Freshman Alvin Melendez is hitting .350 in his last eight games with four runs scored, and a .458 on-base percentage… Freshman Kyle Martin is 2-0 with a save and a 0.96 ERA, while over his last 9.1 innings he has 17 strikeouts and a .121 opponent batting average… Graduate student Jimmy Murphy is 2-1 in his last three starts with a 1.64 ERA and 19 strikeouts in 22 innings.
 
WHO'S NEXT: Fordham travels to Rhode Island this weekend to start a three-game Atlantic 10 series, April 28-30, with game times set for 3:00 PM on Friday, and 1:00 PM on both Saturday and Sunday.