FAIRFIELD, Conn. – The power keeps coming for the Fairfield University Baseball team who crushed three more home runs with three of those coming in the fifth inning to take a 15-4 victory over Siena in the middle game of their three-game set. With the win, the Stags clinch their 30th victory of the season and boost their conference mark to 17-5. Fairfield will now have a chance to clinch their fifth MAAC Regular Season Championship with a win in the series finale tomorrow.
Matt Zaffino,
Matt Venuto,
Colin Kelly, and
Mike Caruso all went deep for the Stags to increase Fairfield's conference lead to 66 homers. Fairfield is now tied with the 2004 LeMoyne squad for the fourth most homers in a single season in MAAC history.
The Stags got off to a hot start with their first four batters of the game all scoring.
Griffin Watson would open the scoring as he crossed the plate on a wild pitch, but the highlight came off the bat of Zaffino who launched a three-run homer to left to put the score at 4-0. The right-fielder has now launched 10 homers on the season and has now driven in 53 runs, just two shy of the program record.
Fairfield would actually score the first nine runs of the game highlighted by those three home runs in the fifth inning.
The Stags would blow the game open by plating six runs in the sixth inning on just one hit. The Stags would draw four walks and be hit by pitches twice during the frame. Kelly and
Nick Sturino both forced in runs as they were hit with the bases loaded.
Ray Leonzi capped the scoring with a RBI groundout.
Bryson Cafaro boosted his MAAC record to an unblemished 6-0 as he went six innings allowing just two runs while striking out six. He faced the minimum through the first four innings, allowing only two baserunners through his first five frames.
Bowen Baker,
Emmett Tolis, and
Bo Buckley would combine for the final 2.2 scoreless frames with the Stags turning two double plays in those latter innings.
Nine different Stags notched a base hit and 11 different Stags scored a run.
The Stags will try to clinch the 2022 MAAC Regular Season Championship and the top-seed in the upcoming MAAC Championships as they look for a sweep against Siena tomorrow at 1pm. Before the game, the baseball program will honor the seven-member Class of 2022 with Senior Day ceremonies starting at 12:30pm.
