Baseball Heads to Sacred Heart on Wednesday

Bronx, N.Y. – (March 23, 2021) – After a grueling four-game series with St. John's this past weekend, the Fordham baseball team is back in action on Wednesday, when they head to Veterans Memorial Park in Connecticut to face the Sacred Heart Pioneers.  Game time has changed from the original schedule as first pitch is set for 1:15 PM.
 
Fordham (9-3) is off to its best 12-game start since 2011 and has already topped Sacred Heart this season.  The Rams took home a 10-0 win over the Pioneers on March 10^th, behind a five-RBI day from Zach Selinger and five shutout innings by Gabe Karslo.
 
Sacred Heart is currently 3-13 on the season, after dropping two of three games to Central Connecticut State this past weekend.
 
PROBABLE STARTERS/GAME COVERAGE:
Fordham – RHP Gabe Karslo (2-0, 3.00 ERA) vs. Sacred Heart – RHP Jake McDowell (0-1, 5.06 ERA) // Live Stats | Twitter - @FordhamBaseball
 
SERIES HISTORY: This is the second meeting of the year between the Rams and Pioneers.  Fordham holds a 8-5 all-time series lead, having won the earlier meeting at Houlihan Park, 10-0.
 
LAST TIME OUT (3/21): In what is becoming a fairly regular occurrence, the Fordham baseball team needed extra innings once again on Sunday in the series finale with St. John's at Jack Kaiser Stadium in Queens.  In the tenth inning, Jack Harnisch drove in the game-winning run, as Fordham overcame a five-error game to defeat the Red Storm, 7-6.
 
The Rams opened the scoring with two runs in the second inning, as with runners at second and third and two outs, Jack Harnisch delivered a two-run single to left, scoring Will Findlay and Casey Brown.
 
St. John's cut the lead to 2-1 in the third and then scored three times in the seventh to grab a 4-2 lead.  In those two frames, the Rams committed three errors to help the rallies.
 
Fordham answered right back in the top of the eighth, posting three runs and re-gain a 5-4 advantage.  Nick Labella was hit by a pitch to start the inning and moved to second on a single by Brown.  After a sacrifice, Labella scored on a ground out by Trey Maeker.  Andy Semo followed with an RBI-double to tie the game with the Rams taking the lead on a single by Harnisch.

 
The lead was extended to 6-4 in the ninth on an RBI-double by Labella, but the Red Storm scored twice in the bottom of the inning to knot the game at six and force extra innings.
 
The Rams were up to the task in the tenth, getting the go-ahead run to make it a 7-6 game.  Ryan Thiesse drew a leadoff walk and moved to second when Semo was hit by a pitch.  Thiesse then stole third and scored on a squeeze bunt by Harnisch.
 
In the bottom of the inning, the Red Storm had a chance as Colin Wetterau drilled a ball to the outfield, but in trying to stretch the hit into a triple was thrown out at third for the second out of the inning.  Fordham's Declan Lavelle then struck out the final batter to win the game.  He improved to 1-1 on the season, allowing one hit over 1.1 innings of relief with three strikeouts.
 
Brooks Ey once again received a no-decision despite pitching very well for the third straight week.  He went the first 6.1 innings, allowing three earned runs on six hits with six strikeouts.  At the plate, Harnisch was 2-for-4 with a career-high four RBI, while Brown was 2-for-4 with two runs scored.  Jake Guercio and Jason Coules each had two hits and a stolen base with Semo going 2-for-3 with a double and an RBI.
              
THAT WAS A LONG ONE: So far this season, the Rams are making up for all the lost games over the past year, having already played four extra-inning games this season, posting a 3-1 mark.  On March 13^th, the Rams and Fairleigh Dickinson Knights played one of the longest games in Fordham baseball history going 16 innings with the Knights coming out on top.  For Fordham, it tied for the second longest game in school history (16 innings at St. John's – 5/10/1948) and only trailed the famous 19-inning affair between Fordham and Clemson at the 1988 NCAA Regional.
 
HOME SWEET HOME: Over the last five seasons, Fordham's Houlihan Park has been a friendly home to the Rams.  The Maroon and White have a 70-24 regular season home record in that time, good for a .750 win percentage.  Recently, the Rams had a string of 15 straight regular season home wins that dated back to 2019, snapped on March 13^th.

WHO'S NEXT: The Rams' upcoming games are a touch in flux due to the Hofstra Pride coming out of a team pause on Saturday.  Fordham will now play at Army West Point on Thursday, March 25^th at 4:00 PM, while only playing Hofstra at home on Sunday for a noon doubleheader.