DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. – With the bases loaded and two outs in the bottom of the ninth inning and last season's MEAC leader in homers representing the tying run at the plate,
Ian Halpin got Bethune-Cookman's Danny Rodriguez to groundout to first to seal Fairfield University Baseball's upset victory against the Wildcats. With the 7-3 win, the Stags defeated a Bethune-Cookman squad who has won the Mid-Eastern Athletic Conference (MEAC) title two-straight seasons and were also last year's runners up in the NCAA Gainesville Regional.
"It's good to see pitchers go out and make quality pitches for our defense to make plays," Head Coach
Bill Currier said. "It's been the winning strategy lately to make pitches and get the defense to make plays."
The Stags (4-8) built on their strong pitching performance from yesterday with another solid day on the rubber from the trio of
Josh Arnold,
Bobby McNiff, and Halpin. McNiff was credited with the first win of his career as he preserved a two-run lead for the four innings he pitched. He would also strikeout four and surrender two hits during the longest outing of his career. Halpin would follow and complete the next two scoreless frames for his first collegiate save.
Offensively, the Stags found both power and creativity. After Bethune-Cookman (6-12) scored three runs in the first, the Stags would tie the game in the second.
Tom Ryan singled in a run to open the scoring and then Fairfield tied the game when
Mitch Williams and Ryan were successful in pulling off a double steal, with Williams crossing the plate.
The power was displayed in the third when
Anthony Boselli gave the Stags the lead with a three-run shot, his second in a Stag uniform. That home run made the score 5-3 in favor of the visitors.
That margin would stay intact with the magnificent pitching on McNiff. The junior would retire the first seven batters he faced, four of those coming from strikeouts. Two of the hitters he struck out during that span (Rodriguez and Jameel Edney) were All-MEAC First Team performers last season. In fact, the Wildcats returned seven starting position players from last year's NCAA Regional squad.
McNiff would surrender a one-out walk to the other All-MEAC First Team performer Adonis Lao and then would be able to get out of a little trouble with two-straight fly outs.
Halpin would close the final two innings, but there were dramatic moments that the sophomore had to work his way out of. In the eighth, Halpin was able to get Lao to hit into an inning ending double play, keeping the two-run lead.
The Stags would add two insurance runs in the eighth on a
Jack Gethings RBI single and a
Drew Blake sacrifice fly.
Those runs would prove to be vital as the Wildcats posted three singles in the ninth to load the bases for Rodriguez with a chance to tie the game. But Halpin would get the final out from Rodriguez, last year's MEAC leader in home runs.
The Stags will look to build on the season's first back-to-back wins when they complete their Spring Break trip at Jacksonville for a three-game series starting on Friday at 7pm.
