Baseball Splits Doubleheader with Siena

Bronx, N.Y. – (April 11, 2018) – Due to last week's postponement, the Fordham baseball team hosted the Siena Saints for a twinbill on Wednesday afternoon at Houlihan Park.  Fordham captured game one, 8-7 in eight innings on a walk-off single by Billy Godrick, while falling in game two by a 5-3 final in seven innings.
 
With the split, Fordham is 19-10-1 on the year, while Siena is 6-23.
 
In game one, Siena jumped out to a 2-0 lead by the second inning, as Joe Drpich and Jordan Bishop both hit solo home runs to right.
 
Fordham tied the game at two in the third, as Jake MacKenzie reached third on a double and an error, and later scored on a sacrifice fly by Billy Godrick.  Matt Tarabek then hit a solo home run to left center, his second of the season, to tie the game.
 
Siena then took advantage of four walks in the fifth inning, as well as three-run double by Phil Madonna and an RBI-single by Brian Kelly to pull out to a 7-2 lead.
  Fordham answered back with a five-run rally of their own in the sixth, which began with three straight singles by Brian Goulard, Nick Labella, and Nico Doria to score a run.  After Jake Baker was hit by a pitch to load the bases, Justin Bardwell plated Labella with a groundout to make it, 7-4.  MacKenzie then roped a two-run double to score Doria and Baker, while advancing to third on an error.  He later scored on a groundout by Godrick to tie the game at seven.
 
The scheduled seven-inning affair went into extra innings where Siena looked to take the lead on a single by Zach Durfee with runners at first and second.  However, Baker put a perfect throw from left field to Doria at the plate for the tag to end the threat.
 
The Rams then walked off with the win in the bottom of the eighth.  With a runner on first and one out, MacKenzie ripped his third double of the game to left.  The ball though went over the wall for a ground rule-double, keeping the runner at third.  Godrick then came through with a single to the left side to score the game-winning run.
 
Godrick finished the game 2-for-4 with three RBI, while MacKenzie was 3-for-5 with three doubles, two RBI, and two runs scored.  Tarabek finished 2-for-4 with a triple and a home run with Labella also having a pair of hits.  Anthony Zimmerman (1-0) earned the win in relief, posting two strikeouts in the eighth.  Starteer John Stankiewicz went the first four innings, allowing two runs on two hits with three strikeouts.

 
In game two, the Saints again struck first on the scoreboard, scoring twice in the third on a sacrifice fly and an RBI-single.
 
Fordham struggled offensively with only one hit through the first five innings, but cut the deficit to 2-1 in the sixth inning on a pinch-hit RBI-single by MacKenzie.
 
The Saints then put together a three-run rally in the seventh to extend the lead to 5-1.  Fordham attempted another late inning rally, getting RBI-singles by Labella and MacKenzie to make it a 5-3 game with two on and two out with the game-winning run at the plate.  However, Godrick could not come up with the same magic from game one, as he struck out to end the game.
 
For Fordham, Matt Mikulski (1-3) took the loss, allowing two runs on eight hits over 4.2 innings of work with three strikeouts.  Joseph Quintal pitched the final 2.1 innings, allowing three runs on five hits.  At the plate, MacKenzie was 2-for-2 with two stolen bases and two RBI, while Justin Machado also had a pair of hits.
 
The Fordham baseball team will next be in action on Friday, April 13^th, as the Rams travel to Philadelphia to begin a three-game Atlantic 10 series with the La Salle Explorers, beginning at 3:00 PM.