Bronx, N.Y. – (March 28, 2023) – The flair for the dramatic has become commonplace for the Fordham baseball team recently and Tuesday was just another chapter, as
Sebastian Mexico's grand slam home run in the fifth inning proved to be the difference in a 5-3 win over the Hartford Hawks at Houlihan Park.
With the win, Fordham has won five straight contests to move to 11-14 on the year.
The game was scoreless through the opening three frames before Hartford took advantage of a pair of Fordham miscues in the fourth inning to grab a 3-0 lead. With two in scoring position after a walk and an error, Noah Rivera plated the opening run with a sacrifice fly to center, followed by an RBI-single by Tyler Holmes. The final run of the inning came on a wild pitch-error combination.
Fordham responded with five runs in the bottom of the fifth inning, as the Rams loaded the bases on three straight singles by
Daniel Bucciero,
Peter DeMaria, and
Will Findlay. After a pop out,
Ryan Rockhill drew a bases loaded walk to force in the Rams' first run.
Sebastian Mexico then cleared the bases with a grand slam home run to right, his first home run of the season and third grand slam by the Rams in the last week.
From there, it was all about the Fordham bullpen, as
Nolan Hughes,
William Simeone, and
Ben Kovel kept the Hawks off the scoreboard for the remainder of the game. Hughes (1-2) earned his first win, allowing two hits over 2.2 innings of relief with four strikeouts, while Simeone tossed 1.1 hitless innings with two strikeouts. Kovel then came on for the final three outs to earn his third save in the last four games, posting a pair of strikeouts.
At the plate, Mexico was 1-for-2 with the grand slam home run, while Findlay was 2-for-4 with a run scored.
The Fordham baseball team will next be in action on Saturday, April 1
st for an Atlantic 10 doubleheader at Davidson, beginning at 1:00 PM.
Gallery: (3-28-2023) Baseball vs. Hartford
