FAIRFIELD, Conn. – The Fairfield University Baseball team hit three home runs in the span of just four pitches in the bottom of the seventh to break a tied score and eventually lead to a 9-3 victory over the Siena Saints.
Matt Zaffino started the power barrage and after a fly out
Matt Bergevin and
Mike Caruso went back-to-back to power the Stags to the victory in the series opener.
"We hit some hard balls at people and stayed patient," Head Coach
Bill Currier said. "We kept going up looking for good pitches and it finally came together with some good barrels."
The Stags would score seven unanswered runs after
Charlie Pagliarini was hit by a pitch forcing in the tying run in the sixth. The offensive explosion came in the next frame with Zaffino, Bergevin, and Caruso all going deep. Zaffino's blast was his ninth of the season and also represented his 50th RBI of the season, becoming one of just two Stags to have driven in at least 50 runs in a season.
Bergevin would launch the first pitch he saw as a line drive off the scoreboard in left and Caruso would put the exclamation point on the stretch with a long homer over the scoreboard.
The Stags would add three more runs in the eighth as they started off the frame with three-straight doubles with Pagliarini and
Matt Venuto each bringing home a run. Caruso would cap his three-hit day with a RBI single to put the score at 9-3 in favor of the Stags.
Michael Sansone would pick up his fifth win of the season as he hurled seven innings for the third-straight start. He would allow just three hits, with two of those leaving the ballpark and one squibber down the first baseline.
Sansone would strike out nine during his performance to bring his career mark to 217, moving him to fourth on the program's all-time list.
Jason Hebner and
Nick Grabek would throw the final two innings in relief with neither pitcher allowing a baserunner.
The Stags notched the first two runs of the game with a bases loaded single by Caruso in the second and a two-out two-strike RBI base hit by Bergevin in the third.
Six different Stags recorded multiple hits with Caruso leading the bunch with three base knocks and three RBI.
Fairfield increases their conference lead with 62 homers on the season, boosting their single season record.
With the win, the Stags have clinched at least the number two seed in the upcoming MAAC Championships. Fairfield would need to win the next two games in the series to clinch the MAAC Regular Season Championship for the fifth time in program history.
The Stags and the Saints will play the middle game of the series on Friday at 1pm.
