Philadelphia, Pa. – (April 13, 2025) – Saint Joseph's got a pitching gem from Colton Book in game one and a come-from-behind victory in game two, as the Hawks swept a doubleheader from the Fordham Rams, 5-2 and 11-10, at Smithson Field in Philadelphia.
Game one was scoreless until the fourth inning when Saint Joseph's struck first. Blake Primrose doubled with two outs and scored on single to left by Tim Dickinson.
Fordham struck back in the top of the fifth, as
Madden Ocko singled to one out and was followed by a two-run home run by
Tommy McAndrews, his third of the season, for a 2-1 lead.
The score stayed that way ino the seventh when the Hawks regained the lead, plating four runs in the inning for a 5-2 edge. Owen Petrich had a two-run double to put Saint Joseph's ahead, 3-2, and then picked up an RBI-double by Dickinson and an RBI-single from Dean Bergmann for a 5-2 advantage.
Colton Book was the story of the game, as he improved to 6-1 on the season. He threw a season-high eight innings, allowing two runs on four hits with 10 strikeouts. Luke Parise earned his second save with a scoreless ninth inning.
Book's effort spoiled a quality outing from Fordham's
Mike Rabayda, who allowed just one run over 5.2 innings of work with eight strikeouts.
Beau Elson (3-2) took the loss, allowing four runs over 2.1 innings of relief.
In game two, Fordham opened the scoring with an RBI-single by Ocko in the first inning.
After Saint Joseph's took a 2-1 lead in the second,
Andrew Kanellis tied the game at two with a solo home run to right, his team-leading sixth of the season.
The Rams then grabbed a 4-2 lead in the fourth on back-to-back RBI-singles by
Taylor Kirk and
Daniel Bucciero. The Hawks closed within one at 4-3 in the bottom of the fifth on a solo home run by Joey Pagano.
Fordham then scored three times in the sixth and seventh innings to go up by a 10-4 score. In the sixth, the inning was highlighted by an RBI-single by
Matt Dieguez, while the seventh innings saw a two-run single by Kanellis. The Hawks got two of those runs back in the bottom of the seventh on a two-run single by Dickinson.
Then in the eighth inning, the Hawks struck for five runs, as the Rams committed three errors in the inning to win the game, 11-10.
For Fordham, Kanellis was 4-for-4 with a home run and three RBI, while Kirk went 3-for-6 with three runs scored and two stolen bases.
The Rams will next be in action on Tuesday, April 15
th, for a home game against FDU at 3:00 PM.
