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Bronx, N.Y. – (May 22, 2019) – Trailing 6-1 in the bottom of the sixth, the Fordham Rams put together their biggest comeback of the season, defeating the Richmond Spiders, 7-6, in ten innings on the opening day of the 2019 Atlantic 10 Championship, held at Fordham's Houlihan Park.
With the win, Fordham improved to 35-22 on the year and moves on in the winner's bracket, while Richmond fell to 27-24-1 and into the consolation bracket.
Richmond opened the scoring in the second inning, scoring a pair of runs. The Spiders picked up a pair of walks and an RBI-single by D.J. Lee for the first run, while the second came in on a sacrifice fly.
Fordham cut the deficit in half in the third, scoring a single run, making it, 2-1.
Billy Godrick reached base on an error to start the inning and moved to second on a sacrifice. After a single by
C.J. Vazquez pushed Godrick to third,
Jason Coules lifted a sacrifice fly to center to score Godrick.
The Spiders regained a two-run lead in the fourth on an RBI-single by Jordan Schulefand and then increased the lead to 4-1 on another RBI-single by Schulefand in the sixth. Richmond continued to add to the lead in the sixth, scoring runs on a bases loaded walk and a ground out for a 6-1 advantage.
The Rams rallied back for two runs in the bottom of the sixth.
Jake MacKenzie got things going with a two-out walk and moved to second on a single by
Matt Tarabek.
Justin Bardwell then drilled a single up the middle to score MacKenzie from second.
Nick Labella followed with an RBI-double down the right field line, scoring Tarabek to make it a 6-3 game.
Each team then threatened to score in the seventh as both loaded the bases. However Fordham's Gabe Karlso struck out the final Richmond batter to leave them loaded, while Richmond's Antonio Balducci got out of a bases loaded jam with no outs to keep Fordham at bay.
The Rams though would break through to tie the game at six in the eighth. Fordham loaded the bases with no outs and got a two-out single by
Jake Baker to pull within one at 6-5. After a sacrifice bunt got a runner to third, Coules lifted his second sacrifice fly to score Godrick from third and tie the game at six.
The teams each had opportunities to score in the ninth, but the bullpens held up forcing extra innings. In the bottom of the tenth, Vazquez led off with an infield single and moved to second on an error. After a ground out moved Vazquez to third, MacKenzie delivered the walk-off single to right, giving Fordham the 7-6 come from behind win.
For Fordham,
Kyle Martin (6-2) earned the win in relief, striking out three in 1.1 innings of work. Karslo tossed two innings of hitless relief with three strikeouts as well for the Rams. At the plate, Vazquez recorded his first career four-hit game, going 4-for-5 with a run scored, while Baker was 2-for-4 with two RBI. Bardwell and Labella each finished with two hits in the game with Coules adding a pair of RBI.
The Rams now move on to face top-seeded VCU at 1:30 PM on Thursday.
