On This Date Presented by Belmont Realty
 
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
 
May 26, 1988 – Following the team's first championships in the MAAC and ECAC as well as its first NCAA Regional appearance in 1987, the 1988 Fordham baseball team had some big shoes to fill and what type of encore the Rams could put on the field.
 
With a relatively young pitching staff which lost all three weekend starters, the Rams managed to put together another record-setting season, repeating as MAAC and ECAC Champions and moving on to the NCAA Northeast Regional.
 
The Rams had Brad Howland and Ray Montgomery to lead the offense, sharing the MAAC Player of the Year award in 1988, while Paul LoGiudice (9-1, 3.72 ERA) was the conference's Rookie of the Year with four players being named All-MAAC (Howland, Montgomery, LoGiudice, and Paul Darrigo).

 
After receiving the MAAC bid into the ECAC Championship, the Rams had plenty of work ahead of them.  Fordham opened with a win over Hartford but fell to Fairleigh Dickinson in the next game in a 14-inning marathon.  The Rams would need to get used to playing extra innings, staving off elimination with 10-inning victories over Maine and Fairleigh Dickinson to reach the title game.  There, Fordham knocked off Hartford for a second time to earn the championship.
 
Fordham was then out into the NCAA Northeast Regional, held in New Britain, Connecticut.  Similar to the 1987 Regional, which was stacked with high end pitching, the 1988 Regional was packed with some heavy hitters in Stanford (eventual national champion), Kentucky, Clemson, Rutgers, and St. John's.
 
Fordham's initial draw was Clemson and set for a late morning start between 11:30 AM and noon.  Neither team was ready for what came next as the teams battled for 19 innings to decide a winner.  It marked the longest game in NCAA Championship history, surpassing the previous mark of 16 innings, which had been done twice in 1972 (Connecticut def. Harvard, 8-5) and 1979 (Miami (Fla.) def. The Citadel, 3-1).
 
Because of the length of game, St. John's and Stanford's game as well as a Double-A minor league game to be held at Beehive Stadium had to be moved to the following day.

 
Clemson scored in the first inning, but that was not a foreshadowing of things to come. Fordham tied the game in the fourth. The Tigers re-took the lead in the fifth at 2-1, but an RBI-single by Ray Montgomery in the eighth inning knotted the game at two.  The Rams loaded the bases with one out later in the inning, but was unable to grab the lead, forcing extra innings.
 
The defenses were iron clad and the two teams had just three errors between them in 156 chances. At one point, both teams went ten consecutive half-innings without a hit, a combined 0 for 33. Fordham had a scoring chance in the 12^th, getting a couple of walks, but no scoring was to be had. That was the only half-inning for either team between the ninth and 16th innings that a man got to second base.
 
The tie was finally broken in the 19^th, when Rusty Charpia singled home Dave Tripp with two outs to give Clemson to a 3-2 lead.  The Rams had an opportunity in the bottom of the frame, as Gene Cunningham dropped a double into left field, but he was left stranded.  In all the time of game was five hours and 18 minutes.
 
The Rams saw an outstanding performance from the pitching duo of Bobby Aylmer, the surprise starter in the game, and Paul Darrigo.  Aylmer, who had only pitched out of the bullpen recording a school record 13 saves, made his only start of the year, allowing two runs over 8.1 innings.  Darrigo pitched the rest of the game, 10.2 innings of relief, which saw him retire 18 of 19 batters in a stretch from the ninth into the 15^th inning.  With his relief appearance, Darrigo finished the year 10-2 with a 3.04 ERA and 73 strikeouts in 100.2 inning pitched, marking only the second time a Fordham pitcher had reached 100 innings pitched (Hank Borowy – 1939).

 
The Rams then had to play Stanford the following day and were eliminated by a score of 7-5.  Stanford would go on to win the Regional and the College World Series that season.
 
The epic game against Clemson remained as the longest NCAA Championship game until 2009, when it was surpassed by a 25-inning affair between Texas and Boston College.
 
Though the season ended on two losses, it was still a remarkable one with a modern day school record 36 wins on the season, and saw the conclusion of some high profile careers, that ended up in the Fordham Athletics Hall of Fame.
 
1988 was the final season for Jack Allen, Brad Howland, Kevin Condon, and Chris Fiacco.  Allen hit .355 in 1988 with 55 runs scored, 11 doubles, 30 RBI, and 39 stolen bases, bringing his school record total to 173, which still stands today.  Howland also hit .355 on the year, scoring 53 times to go with 16 doubles, 12 home runs and 45 RBI, setting a then-school record with 30 career home runs.  Fiacco and Condon also had monstrous senior years with 45 and 46 RBI, respectively.