Merion Station, Pa. – (April 28, 2018) – Fordham's
Jake MacKenzie hit a solo home run in the top of the 11
th inning, while
Mike Cowell struck out the side in the bottom of the inning, as the Rams outlasted the Saint Joseph's Hawks, 8-7 in 11 innings, at Smithson Field on Saturday afternoon.
With the win, Fordham improved to 26-14-1 on the year, 9-5 in the Atlantic 10, while Saint Joseph's fell to 16-22 overall, 4-11 in the league.
Like Friday, Fordham jumped out to the initial lead of the game right away in the first inning.
Billy Godrick led off with a liner to right field, that the rightfielder could not come up with on a diving catch, allowing Godrick to reach second on a double. Godrick was then sacrificed to second by
Jake MacKenzie and scored on a single to the right side by
Brian Goulard.
The Hawks answered with a three-run second to get their first lead of the series, highlighted by RBI-singles from Marc Giacalone and Brendan Hueth. Saint Joseph's extended the lead to 4-1 in the bottom of the fifth, when Charlie Concannon connected on a solo home run to right, his fourth of the season. The Hawks continued to add on the offense in the sixth, scoring twice in the sixth on an RBI-triple by Giacalone and an RBI-single from Kadar Namey.
Fordham got a run back in the seventh, as
C.J. Vazquez came up with an RBI-single to score
Justin Bardwell, who reached base on a double.
The Rams then mounted a five-run rally in the bottom of the eighth inning to re-gain the lead at 7-6. Godrick drew a leadoff walk, followed by an infield single by MacKenzie. After a pitching change and a strikeout, Goulard drew a walk to load the bases for Bardwell. Bardwell then cleared the bases with a double to left center, cutting the Rams deficit to one at 6-5.
Justin Bardwell had three hits on Saturday.
After a wild pitch moved Bardwell to third,
Alvin Melendez drew a walk and stole second.
Reiss Knehr then lifted a sacrifice fly to right, tying the game at six. Fordham then re-loaded the bases on a walk to Vazquez, while
Jake Baker was hit by a pitch. Godrick then drew his second walk of the inning to force in Melendez for a 7-6 lead.
The Hawks though would tie the game at seventh in the ninth, as Kadar Namey hit a solo home run to left, his sixth of the season.
The game remained tied to the 11
th, when MacKenzie untied the game with a solo home run to left, his team-leading eighth of the season, giving Fordham an 8-7 lead.
Fordham reliever
Mike Cowell then struck out the side in the bottom half of the 11
th to close out the win, earning his first career save.
Brian Weissert (2-2) got win after pitching a scoreless tenth inning.
Ben Greenberg got a no decision after allowing six runs on ten hits over the first 5.1 innings, while
Joseph Quintal tossed 1.2 innings of scoreless relief with
Kyle Martin recording four strikeouts over two innings of relief.
At the plate, Bardwell was 3-for-5 with two doubles, two runs scored, and three RBI, while MacKenzie was 2-for-5 with the game-winning home run. Goulard, Baker, and Melendez also had two hits piece for the Rams.
The same two teams will match-up for the final game of the series at 1:00 PM on Sunday.
