FAIRFIELD, Conn. – With just a few innings left in their 2018 home slate, the Fairfield University Baseball team dug deep and tallied four runs to break a seventh inning tie and grab their home finale by an 8-4 score over visiting UMass. Eight different Stags tallied at least one hit while five different players recorded a multiple hit game.
Seven out of the first eight Stags (22-27) reached base in the deciding seventh inning, with the only out coming on a
Tyler Gambardella sacrifice bunt.
Eric Cerno started the stanza with a double down the left field line, which was the last batter for UMass (14-27) starter Sam Cooper. After Gambardella's sacrifice, six-straight Stags reached base including a RBI single by
Drew Arciuolo and a RBI triple by
Jack Gethings. Fairfield would load the bases and would drive in two more on a
Dylan Reynolds walk and a
Tim Zeng fielder's choice.
Those four runs broke a 4-4 tie for the Stags who overcame three deficits in the game. Their first came after the opening half inning, but the home team responded by scoring a run off a double play in their half of the first.
The Minutemen took a 2-1 lead in the fourth on a Justen Voghel sacrifice fly, but once again the Stags answered right back.
Kevin Radziewicz led off the fourth with a single and would be followed by a single by
Dan Ryan and a run scoring single by Zeng to once again knot the score at 2-2.
Nolan Kessinger gave UMass another lead with a two run homer in the fifth, and this time it took the Stags a few innings to answer back, but this comeback was one of the highlights of the game. With a runner on, senior
Drew Blake launched his eighth home run of the spring over the right center field wall that was caught on a fly by his father in his penultimate at-bat at Alumni Diamond. Aside from the storyline, Blake's two-run shot also tied the score at 4-4 before Fairfield took control in the seventh.
The Fairfield bullpen combined for three perfect innings after starter Eli Olpihant hurled six innings.
Peter Horn would pick up his first win of the season with a 1-2-3 seventh.
Brendan Harkin threw a perfect eighth and
David Sacco struck out the side to end the game.
All three seniors in the lineup tallied multiple hits in their final home game in a Stag uniform. Arciuolo and Radziewicz also led the Stags with two runs scored.
The Stags will close out the 2018 regular season when they travel to Monmouth for a three-game series starting on Thursday at 2pm.
