Bronx N.Y. – (April 5, 2024) – Fordham's
Declan Lavelle continued his stellar pitching for the Rams on Friday afternoon, throwing a career-best 7.2 innings with a career-high 10 strikeouts in a 5-2 win over the Richmond Spiders at Houlihan Park.
With the win, Fordham improved to 10-18 on the year, 2-2 in the Atlantic 10, while Richmond fell to 12-17 on the year, 2-2 in the league.
The Rams opened the scoring right away in the first inning, as
Daniel Bucciero led off with a single, stole second, moved to third on a ground out, and scored a on sacrifice fly by
Andrew Kanellis.
Richmond knotted the game at one in the third inning when Phil Bernstein doubled home Aaron Whitley from first base.
The game stayed tied until the bottom of the sixth, as Fordham posted a three-run rally for a 4-1 edge. Bucciero got things rolling with a single and moved to second on a sacrifice bunt by
Ryan Thiesse. After a pair of hit by pitches,
Tommy McAndrews lifted a sacrifice fly to right field to score Bucciero from third base and retake the lead. Later in the inning, the Rams picked up RBI-singles by
Cian Sahler and
Henry Pelinski to extend the lead to 4-1.
The teams then exchanged runs in the eighth for the 5-2 final score with Fordham's coming on an RBI-double from McAndrews.
The three-run advantage was enough for Fordham's pitching duo of
Declan Lavelle and
Aric Berg. Lavelle (4-3) struck out a career-high 10 batters over 7.2 innings, as he scattered seven hits in the win. Berg recorded his first career save, getting the final four outs of the contest.
At the plate, Bucciero was 2-for-4 with two runs scored and a stolen base, while Sahler had two hits and an RBI. McAndrews added a double and two RBI with
Steve Luttazi reaching base in all four of his plate appearances (single, walk, 2 HBP).
Game two of this series is set for 1:00 PM on Saturday.
