Bronx, N.Y. – (May 1, 2025) – The stretch run to the Atlantic 10 Baseball Championship starts this weekend for the Fordham Rams, as they welcome the league leading Rhode Island Rams to Houlihan Park for three-game series.
With three series remaining, Fordham (21-25, 11-10 A-10) enters the weekend in a tie for sixth place in the conference standings with Dayton and George Washington are three games back of first place.
SCOUTING REPORT: URI (27-18) sits in a tie for first place in the Atlantic 10 standings with George Mason and Saint Joseph's with a 14-7 league mark. Rhode Island is batting .307 as a team and have scored at least 10 runs in 18 of their games. Six players batting .318 or better, led by Jack Hopko, who is batting .364 with 13 home runs, and 69 RBI. Anthony Depino is another of the big bats in the URI lineup, hitting .353 with 16 doubles, 14 home runs, and 44 RBI. URI also boasts a solid weekend rotation with Jeremy Urena, Trystan Levesque, and Jake Cullen. The trio has combined for a 13-4 record with Levesque leading the team with 65 strikeouts in 64 innings.
PROBABLE STARTERS:
Friday - Fordham – RHP
Aidan Dowd (3-4, 6.30 ERA) vs. URI – Jeremy Urena (5-1, 5.95 ERA)
Saturday – Fordham – RHP
Mike Rabayda (2-4, 5.02 ERA) vs. URI – LHP Trystan Levesque (5-1, 3.52 ERA)
Sunday – Fordham – RHP
Chase Hanawalt (0-3, 6.69 ERA) vs. URI – RHP Jake Cullen (3-2, 5.61 ERA)
SERIES HISTORY: The Fordham-Rhode Island series dates as far back as 1913 with the vast majority of games as members of the Atlantic 10 Conference. URI holds a 41-36 record over Fordham, but the Maroon and White were able to come away with a series win last season in Kingston, taking the first two games of the series. In that series,
Cian Sahler totaled six hits and five RBI to lead the Fordham attack, while the pitching staff held URI to a .196 batting average.
LAST TIME OUT (4/29): Sacred Heart's Mitch Hawkins allowed one earned run over six innings, while Gavin Donohue and Dante D'Amore each hit a home run, as the Pioneers edged the Fordham Rams, 5-4, at Veterans Park on Tuesday afternoon.
Fordham opened the scoring in the first inning, netting a pair of runs.
Taylor Kirk led off with a single and moved to second on a walk to
Daniel Bucciero. After a double steal, both Kirk and Bucciero came in to score on a single by
Andrew Kanellis.
Sacred Heart made it 2-1 in the second on an RBI-single by Ronan Donohue, and then tied the game at two in the third inning on a bases loaded walk. The Pioneers then grabbed a 3-2 lead in the fifth, as an error by the Rams eventually led to another bases loaded walk to force in a run. Gavin Donohue and Dante D'Amore then hit solo home runs in the sixth for a 5-2 edge. For Donohue, it was his seventh of the season, while being the third for D'Amore.
The Rams tried to rally in the late innings, loading the bases in the seven and eighth innings, but were unable to score. Then in the ninth, Bucciero drew a walk, which was followed by a two-run home run by Kanellis, his eighth of the season, to pull Fordham within one, 5-4.
Tommy McAndrews then reached on a single to put the tying run aboard, but a fly out and two groundouts ended the comeback effort.
Connor Haywood (0-3) took the loss in relief, allowing one unearned run over 2.1 innings of work. Starter
Zach Karson went the first 2.2 innings giving up two runs on four hits with
Ryan Egan also allowing two runs in his two innings of work.
Gannon Brady pitched a scoreless eighth inning. At the plate, Kanellis went 2-for-5 with a home run and four RBI, while Kirk was 2-for-3 with a run scored and a stolen base. Bucciero finished with two walks, two runs scored, and a stolen base.
RARE AIR: Freshman
Taylor Kirk has had an impressive first season with the Rams, standing among the team leaders in batting average (.348), runs scored (45), walks (24), and stolen bases (25). As of late, he has been on a heater, reaching base safely in his last 33 games, while having a 19-game hitting streak snapped last week at Fairfield. The hit streak was the second-longest by a Ram since 1995 behind only
Cian Sahler's school record 22-game hit streak from last season, while his 33-game on-base streak makes him one of six Rams to reach that mark in the last 30 seasons, joining Mike Marchiano (67), Eric Reese (49), Jason Coules (38), Bobby Kingsbury (37), and Danny Leach (31).
APRIL ALL-STARS: April was an outstanding month for some of the Rams, led by outfielder
Andrew Kanellis, who batted .394 (26-66) for the month with 16 runs scored, four home runs, and 15 RBI.
Taylor Kirk also had a strong April, batting .352 with 13 runs scored, 12 RBI, and nine stolen bases, as did
Reid Lapekas with a .343 batting average with a .455 on-base percentage.
MEN OF STEAL: The Rams have gotten back into a stealing mode with 106 stolen bases this season, marking the 13
th time in program history that the team has reached the century mark. The Rams rank 17
th in the NCAA in total stolen bases and 25
th in per game average (2.30). Fordham has 10 players with at least three stolen bases this season, led by
Daniel Bucciero, who is 16
th in the country with 29.
Taylor Kirk is also at 20-plus steals with 25, marking the first time since 2019 that Fordham has had two players with 20 or more steals in the same season.
CHASING MILESTONES: Daniel Bucciero is chasing some exclusive company in the Fordham record book. Having already cracked the top 15 in career doubles and home runs at Rose Hill, he is just one home run shy of joining Bobby Kingsbury (2000-02) as the only two Rams to ever have 100 runs scored, 40 doubles, 20 home runs, 100 RBI, and 50 stolen bases in their careers. He is also just 18 hits shy of 200 for his career at Fordham, as Bucciero looks to become the 16
th member of the 200-hit club.
WHO'S NEXT: Following this weekend's series, Fordham will host Dayton for a three-game series at Houlihan Park from May 9-11.
