POMONA, N.Y. – Luke Nomura hit a walk-off single in the bottom of the tenth to send the Fairfield University Baseball to the MAAC Championship Series for the second-straight season with a 7-6 final over Mount St. Mary's. The walk-off hit was Nomura's second big hit of the night after he blasted a two-run go-ahead homer in the seventh to keep the Stags alive with an 11-8 victory over Marist.
 
The Stags will now advance to the MAAC Championship Series where they will take on Niagara at 12pm. Fairfield will have to beat the Purple Eagles twice in order to hoist the MAAC Championship trophy for the second time in program history and punch their ticket to the NCAA Regionals.
 
"I just had to stay locked in and focused," Nomura said. "We're just going one pitch at a time and that's the result."
 
"We kept coming back many times this year and you have to give them credit for their grit and grinding it out," Head Coach Bill Currier said. "I'm just happy our pitchers did a much better job today in keeping Mount down which wasn't easy."
 
 
Game One: Fairfield 11, Marist 8
 
Nomura hit a go-ahead two run shot in the bottom of the seventh just over the short porch in right field to make an 8-7 deficit into a 9-8 advantage. The Stags would get some breathing room with a pair of runs in the eighth on a Nick Sturino RBI single and a Dean Ferrara RBI ground rule double.
 
Blake Helmstetter would pick up the save by getting the final five outs including a strikeout to end the game and keep the Fairfield season alive.
 
The Stags would build a 7-1 lead through the first three innings highlighted by a five-spot in the fifth. Tyler Kipp stayed hot with his fourth hit of the tournament and his sixth RBI with a single in the first.
 
Zach Selinger would have the biggest hit with a three-run homer to center, his fifth round tripper of the year. Sturino would follow with a triple off the wall in right field and Dean Ferrara capped the scoring with a sacrifice fly to put the score at 7-1.
 
Marist, however, would score seven unanswered runs all of them unearned.
 
Kevin Kell would come in relief and slow down the Marist bats, picking up the win with two scoreless innings.
 
Nomura led the Stags with three hits including his big two-run go-ahead shot in the seventh. Ferrara, Kipp, Ethan Hibbard, and Sturino also had a pair of hits.
 
Game Two: Fairfield 7, Mount St. Mary's 6 (10 innings)
 
The Stags trailed all game long, grabbing their only lead with Nomura's big hit in the bottom of the tenth.
 
In turn, Fairfield was forced to come back all game long, starting with a 4-0 deficit in the third. Paul Catalano started a three-run fourth inning with a two-out, two-strike, two-run single to get the Stags on the scoreboard. Ferrara would follow with a RBI single to center to cut the Fairfield deficit to one.
 
The Mount got a run back in the fifth on a RBI ground out. The Stags would flex their power in the next frame starting with a solo homer from Ethan Hibbard, his 17th long ball of the season. Nomura would have another big hit with a RBI double, scoring Sturino to tie the game at 5-5.
 
The four-seed would grab the lead right back in the eighth on a solo shot to put the score at 6-5.
 
Once again, the Stags would mount a comeback as they were down to their last at-bats in the ninth. Matt Bergevin started the rally with a double and the pinch runner Matt Lussier would come around to score on a Kipp single to right to keep the Stags alive. The base hit was Kipp's sixth base hit of the tournament and his seventh RBI.
 
Peter Ostensen kept the Mount down with a perfect tenth to give the Stags a chance for the heroics. The Stags got the first two runners on with a Hibbard single and a Sturino walk to put the game-winning run into scoring position. Ryan Strollo would sacrifice both runners over to put the winning run 90 feet away with two outs. On a 1-1 pitch, Nomura drove the ball into the right center field gap, easily scoring Hibbard and starting the celebration.
 
In total, Nomura have five hits and four RBI on the day.
 
The Stags have now advanced to the MAAC Championship Series for the second-straight year and the fourth time in their last five opportunities. The Stags will have to beat Niagara twice tomorrow to claim the conference crown with the first game starting at 12pm.