Amherst, Mass. – (April 13, 2024) – Dealing with rain and high winds on Saturday, the Fordham baseball team split a doubleheader with the Massachusetts Minutemen at Earl Lorden Field in Amherst, Massachusetts.
Game one saw the Rams pull out a 7-6 win over the Minutemen in dramatic fashion to give Fordham head coach
Kevin Leighton his 500
th career coaching win and 300
th at Fordham.
Fordham opened the scoring right away in the first inning, as
Daniel Bucciero led off with a single and moved to second on a failed pickoff attempt. After advancing to third on a fly out, Bucciero scored on a single down the left field line by
Cian Sahler. The base hit extended Sahler's current hit streak to a career-best nine games.
After UMass scored twice in the third inning, Fordham regained the lead with a four-run fourth inning, picking up RBI-singles by
Chris Genaro and Bucciero with
Ryan Thiesse capping the rally with a two-run double from
Ryan Thiesse. The Rams added another run in the fifth, getting a sacrifice fly from
Henry Pelinski for a 6-2 edge.
The Minutemen cut into the Fordham lead in the bottom of the seventh on a solo home run by Austin Burgess, making it, 6-3, but Fordham got that run back on an RBI-groundout from
Steve Luttazi in the top of the ninth to go back ahead by four, 7-3.
The Rams ended up needing that run, as Burgess hit a three-run home run in the bottom of the ninth with two outs to close within one at 7-6. Reliever
Aric Berg then got the final out for the Rams on a fly out to finish off the win and pick up his second save.
Fordham starter
Declan Lavelle (5-3) did everything except get the final out for the complete game win. He threw a career-best 8.2 innings and recorded a new career-high with 12 strikeouts. At the plate, all nine starters had a hit in the game with Bucciero going 3-for-5 with two runs scored and an RBI, while Thiesse was 2-for-5 with a double and two RBI.
Andrew Kanellis and
Tommy McAndrews also had multi-hit games for the Rams.
In game two, UMass' Leif Bigelow threw 4.1 innings of three-hit relief with six strikeouts to give the Minutemen a 7-5 win in the nightcap.
The Minutemen started the scoring with a bang in the second inning, posting a five-run rally. However, Fordham scored once in the third and three times in the fourth to make it a 5-4 game. Sahler had an RBI-single in the third to extend his hit streak to 10 games, while Genaro had a sacrifice fly in the fourth to highlight the scoring.
UMass went back ahead by three in the bottom of the fourth, when Burgess hit a two-run home run, his third round-tripper of the doubleheader.
Fordham got a run back in the fifth on an error to make it, 7-5, and had chances in both the eighth and ninth innings to tie the game. The best chance came in the ninth, as the Rams had runners at second and third with two outs after a single by Sahler and a double by
Steve Luttazi. However, Leif Bigelow struck out
Madden Ocko to close out the game.
Aidan Down (1-2) took the loss, allowing five runs on six hits over two innings, while
Robbie Stewart scattered six hits over five innings of relief with five strikeouts.
Connor Haywood also pitched a scoreless inning of relief. At the plate, Sahler was 2-for-4 with a pair of RBI, while Luttazi was 2-for-3 with a double and two runs scored. Genaro also chipped in a pair of hits and an RBI.
The rubber game of the series will take place on Sunday with a changed game time of 11:00 AM at Earl Lorden Field.
