On This Date: Baseball Takes Battle of the Bronx with Offensive Explosion

With the 2020 spring sports season canceled by the COVID-19 outbreak, we at Fordham have decided to dig back through our archives and provide our fans with content on some of the outstanding teams and student-athletes who have graced Rose Hill over the years
 
April 30, 2013 – 1973 was the last time that Fordham and Manhattan played against each other in football. Forty years later, the 109th baseball edition of the Battle of the Bronx resembled one of those old football games, as Fordham used a nine-run first inning to defeat the Jaspers, 18-12, at Houlihan Park on Tuesday.

The 30 runs scored in the game was the second-most ever in a Fordham-Manhattan game, falling just one shy of the 31 total runs scored in 2003.  The game also tied for the seventh-most total runs scored in a Fordham home game (30).

After keeping Manhattan off the scoreboard in the first, Fordham sent 14 batters to the plate in the opening frame, scoring nine times, the most Fordham has scored in an inning that season.

With a runner on third and two outs, Charles Galiano was hit by a pitch and David Judisky drew a walk to load the bases. It was the 18th time Galiano was hit by a pitch, breaking the Fordham single season record of 17, set by Bobby Sprague in 1999. Brendan Maghini then cleared the bases with a double to the left center gap for a 3-0 lead. Sam Careccia followed with an RBI-single to right to put Fordham up 4-0.

Ryan McNally and Joseph DeVito both drew walks to re-load the bases, which Mike Mauri quickly took advantage, ripping a two-run single to center, scoring Careccia and McNally. Fordham then added RBI-singles by both Ian Edmiston and Galiano, as well as one run on an error, to lead by a 9-0 count.

Manhattan got back into the game with a six-run third, highlighted by a three-run home run by Joe McClennan.

Fordham added a run in the third on a bases loaded walk to Galiano, which was followed by a three-run fifth inning to take a 13-6 lead. In the fifth, Fordham had the bases loaded for the fourth time in the game, when Careccia delivered a two-run single to center, scoring Joseph Runco and Ryan Phelan. The Rams added the final run of the inning on a wild pitch.

The Jaspers got a run back in the sixth, but the Rams replied with three more runs in the bottom half of the inning, highlighted by an RBI-ground out by Judisky and an RBI-single from Maghini.

Manhattan would not go away though, scoring four runs in the seventh and once in the eighth to pull within, 16-12. Fordham then closed the scoring with two runs in the eighth to clinch the 18-12 win. In the eighth, Judisky had an RBI-single to score Runco from second base, while Careccia had an infield single, which scored Phelan from third.

Fordham reliever Cody Johnson (3-2) earned the win by pitching three innings of four-hit relief, allowing one run with two strikeouts. At the plate, 10 different Rams scored a run in the game, while nine had at least one hit. Maghini led the way, going 3-for-4 with two doubles, two runs scored, and four RBI, while Careccia was 3-for-6 with a career-high four RBI. Mauri and Edmiston also had three hits each in the game with Mauri, Runco, and Phelan each scoring three times.
 
Since 1923, Fordham holds 82-36-3 record in the Battle of the Bronx against Manhattan through 2020.