BRONX, N.Y. – Down to their final three outs, the Saint Joseph's baseball team scored five times in the top of the ninth and withstood a furious Fordham rally as the Hawks held on for a 7-6 win over the Rams in an elimination game of the 2016 Atlantic 10 Baseball Championship at Houlihan Park on Thursday night.
With the Hawks trailing, 4-2, Cal Jadacki led off the top of the ninth with a walk before a single by Taylor Boyd and a walk to Peter Sitaras loaded the bases with nobody out. Jimmy Murphy came on in relief of Reiss Knehr and gave up a single to Marc Giacalone that brought the Hawks within a run.
Deon Stafford, Jr., followed with a single through the left side to tie the game. Two batters later, Charlie Coghlin singled down the right field line to put the Hawks on top before Charlie Concannon hit a two-run single to left center to make it a 7-4 ballgame.
Fordham (29-29) made things interesting in the bottom half of the frame. Joey Runco led off with a single, giving him Fordham's all-time hit record, and advanced to second on an error. After a groundout moved him to third, a single up the middle by Mark Donadio made it 7-5. Luke Stampfl followed with a walk, chasing Jack Stover from the game. Brian Lau came on and fanned Justin Bardwell, but a wild pitch on strike three to Ryan Mahoney made it a 7-6 game and advanced the tying run to second base.
Fortunately for the Crimson and Gray, Lau induced a foul pop-up from Jason Lundy that Giacalone squeezed as he fell to the turf to end the ballgame.
Saint Joseph's (30-22) took the lead two batters into the game as Giacalone led off with a walk and came in to score on a double to the gap by Stafford. John Brue then hit a ball to nearly straightaway center field that was brought back over the wall by Lundy; however, Lundy wasn't able to corral it and Brue ended up with an RBI double.
After Tim Brennan retired the first six hitters he faced, Fordham threatened in the bottom of the third. Mahoney led off with a walk before Lundy singled. A sacrifice bunt put runners on second and third with one away, but Brennan fielded a comebacker from Matthew Kozuch for the second out before Giacalone threw Runco out at first to end the threat.
The Rams hung one on the board in the fourth as Donadio's one-out single was followed by an RBI double down the left field line by Stampfl.
Fordham went ahead in the home half of the sixth. A leadoff single by Ryan McNally was followed by a throwing error on Giacalone and a single by Stampfl to load the bases and bring Ryan Kelly in from the bullpen. After a strikeout, Mahoney singled up the middle to plate a pair and give the Rams the lead. A sacrifice fly by Donadio in the seventh then doubled the Fordham advantage to 4-2.
After a 1-2-3 top of the eighth, Stover came in with two on and nobody out in the bottom half and retired three straight to keep the Hawks within two heading to the dramatic ninth inning.
Stover earned the win, his first of the season, after allowing two runs on two hits and a walk in an inning and a third. Reiss Knehr took the loss for the Rams, falling to 2-3. He allowed three runs on two hits and two walks in three-plus innings.
Brennan allowed three runs, two of them earned, on five hits in five-plus innings. Ben Greenberg started for Fordham but did not factor in the decision either, allowing two runs on seven hits in five innings.
With the win, the Hawks move on to face VCU on Friday. First pitch is set for 3:30 p.m., and the contest will be televised nationally on the American Sports Network.
