Tysons, Va. – (May 19, 2025) – The 2025 Atlantic 10 Baseball Championship gets underway on Tuesday at Capital One Park in Tysons, Va., and the Fordham Rams return to the Championship for the first time in six years and are the #6 seed, making their 12th overall appearance.
Fordham (25-31, 15-15) secured the sixth seed in this week's championship after taking two of three contests at George Mason last weekend. The Rams have surged at the end of the regular season, winning four of its last six league games to make the tournament.
The Rams take on the third-seeded Saint Louis Billikens on Tuesday, May 20th at 7:00 PM. Rhode Island is the top seed for the championship and received an opening day bye. Davidson is seeded fourth and will take on #5 seed Saint Joseph's to start the championship with #2 seed George Mason facing #7 Dayton in the middle game on day one.
PROBABLE STARTERS:
Fordham – RHP
Aidan Dowd (3-6, 7.20 ERA) vs. Saint Louis – RHP Josh Cunningham (5-2, 4.91 ERA)
SERIES HISTORY: In the Atlantic 10 Championship, Fordham and Saint Louis have met three times in 2010, 2014, and 2016. The Billikens won 16-11 in 2010 and 10-2 in 2014, while Fordham took the 2016 game, 9-7. Overall, Saint Louis holds a 21-14 edge in the series. The teams met last season for a three-game series at Houlihan Park with the Rams winning two of three games.
LAST TIME OUT (5/17): Fordham's
Matt Dieguez collected three hits and three RBI on Saturday to lead the Rams to a 5-2 win over the George Mason Patriots at Spuhler Field and take the series.
Fordham got on the board first in the opening frame.
Daniel Bucciero was hit by a pitch with two outs and scored on a hit-and-run RBI-single by
Andrew Kanellis. George Mason tied the game in the bottom of the second, as after a two-out double, a bunt single was thrown away, allowing the runner to score.
The Rams went back ahead in the fourth, 2-1, as with two on and two out,
Taylor Kirk hit a pop up that landed behind the pitcher's mound for an RBI-double, scoring
Carson Chavez from second. Fordham added to the lead in the seventh with a two-run double by
Matt Dieguez, making it 4-1.
The Patriots picked up a run in the bottom of the seventh, but Fordham got that run back in the ninth on an RBI-single by Dieguez for the 5-2 final.
Koen Smith came on to record the final three outs in the ninth to record his fourth save of the season.
Chase Hanawalt (1-2) earned his first career win, pitching two scoreless innings of relief.
A.J. Pino made the start, allowing one unearned run over three innings with
Robbie Stewart and
Gannon Brady each pitching one scoreless inning.
Andres Perez gave up one run in his one inning of work.
At the plate, Dieguez was 3-for-4 with two doubles, three RBI, and a stolen base, while Bucciero was 2-for-3 with two runs scored and two stolen bases. Chavez finished 2-for-4 with a run scored with Kirk ending up 1-for-3 with a double, 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 (.344), runs scored (53), hits (75), walks (28), and stolen bases (30). As of late, he has been on a heater, reaching base safely in his last 43 games, while having a 19-game hitting streak this season. 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 40-game on-base streak makes him one of three Rams to reach at least 40 games in the last 30 seasons, joining Mike Marchiano (67) and Eric Reese (49).
MEN OF STEAL: The Rams have gotten back into a stealing mode with 131 stolen bases this season, marking the 13th time in program history that the team has reached the century mark. The Rams rank 12th in the NCAA in total stolen bases and 16th in per game average (2.34). Fordham has 10 players with at least three stolen bases this season, led by
Daniel Bucciero, who is 20th in the country with 34.
Taylor Kirk is also at 30 steals, marking the first time since Jake MacKenzie and Alvin Melendez did so in 2019 that Fordham has had two players with 30 or more steals in the same season.
MILESTONE HIT: Daniel Bucciero joined some exclusive company in the Fordham record book against URI. Having already cracked the top 15 in career doubles, home runs, and total bases at Rose Hill, he hit his 20th career home run against Rhode Island, 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 three hits shy of 200 for his career at Fordham, as Bucciero looks to become the 16th member of the 200-hit club and the first to do it in just three seasons.
KANELLIS HITS 50: With a two-run double in the season finale, graduate student
Andrew Kanellis hit 50 RBI for the season, becoming the 11th Ram to reach that plateau. The last Ram to do so was Chris Walker with 61 in 2010. He could get company this weekend as sophomore
Matt Dieguez sits at 46 on the year. Fordham has only had two 50-RBI players in the same season twice (1991 - Pete DeLuca, Santy Gallone; 1997 - Mike Marchiano, Tom Stein).
