Baseball Edges Yale, 4-3

West Haven, Conn. – (April 24, 2018) – Behind seven strong inning from freshman Matt Mikulski, the Fordham baseball team edged the Yale Bulldogs, 4-3, at Yale Field in West Haven, Connecticut on Tuesday afternoon.
 
With the win, Fordham improved to 24-14-1 on the year, while Yale evened its record at 17-17.
 
Fordham struck first, scoring twice in the third, as the Rams loaded the bases with one out on a double by Jake Baker, an infield single by Billy Godrick, and a walk to Jake MacKenzie.  Matt Tarabek plated the first run with a ground out to first, while back-to-back walks to Justin Bardwell and C.J. Vazquez forced in the second run.
  Yale cut the Fordham lead in half in the bottom of the fourth with a two-out rally.  Griffin Dey singled to right and then scored on a triple by Alex Stiegler.
 
The score stayed at 2-1 until the top of the eighth, when Fordham tacked on a pair of runs to make it a 4-1 game.  Tarabek led off the frame with an infield single and stole second.  After a single by Bardwell put runners at the corners, Vazquez put down a perfect safety squeeze bunt to score Tarabek with Bardwell going to second.  Brian Goulard and Alvin Melendez then reached on back-to-back singles, with Melendez's single scoring Bardwell from third.
 
Yale got a run back in the bottom half of the inning to make it, 4-2, as a pair of walks and two ground outs got a run across.

 
The Bulldogs made it interesting in the ninth as Dey hit a solo home run to left for his sixth of the season, making it a 4-3 game.  However, Kyle Martin got the next three batters in order to close out his seventh save of the season.
 
Matt Mikulski (2-4) was outstanding on the hill for Fordham, tossing a season-high seven innings, allowing one run on three hits with four strikeouts.  At the plate, Tarabek was 1-for-5 with a runs scored, a stolen base and an RBI, while Godrick was 1-for-3 with a run scored and two stolen bases.  Baker finished 1-for-4 with a double and a run scored with Vazquez having a pair of RBI.
 
The Fordham baseball team will next be in action on Friday, April 27^th, when the Rams make a return trip to the Philadephia area to start a three-game Atlantic 10 series at Saint Joseph's, beginning at 3:00 PM.