FAIRFIELD, Conn. – The Fairfield University Baseball team scored five times in the fifth inning to retake the lead and never gave it up as the Stags even their weekend series with Siena with a 7-2 victory at Don and Chris Cook Field on Saturday. TJ Schmalzle drove in three including a solo homer while Bowen Baker shut down the Saints' bats in his six innings of work.
 
"Bo did a good job of limiting Siena on the bases and hit more balls hard where people weren't," Head Coach Bill Currier said. "We stole more bases because had more runners on. It was a much better day to hit with temperature and the wind and guys did a good job of limiting out of the zone swings and staying in the zone."
 
Schmalzle started the scoring with a solo shot to the opposite field for his second homer of the season. Siena would tie the game in the fourth and took the lead in the fifth before Fairfield rallied in the bottom half.
 
The Stags batted around in the fifth and forced Siena's pitcher Noah Rodriguez to throw 45 pitches in the frame. Schmalzle, once again, had the first big hit of the frame with a two-run single plating Tyler Kipp and JP Kuczik. Dean Ferrara would bring him home with a sacrifice fly and Luke Nomura cleared the bases with a two-run homer, his team-leading fifth of the year.
 
Baker kept the Saints off balance through his six innings allowing just two runs on four hits while striking out six. The left-hander gave way for Jimmy Mulvaney who threw a scoreless seventh and Blake Helmstetter closed the door with two shutout frames.
 
Baker picked up his third win of the season to improve his record to 3-0, needing only 83 pitches to get through six. Schmalzle was the lone Stag to pick up multiple hits while also driving in three.
 
The two teams will play in the rubber game of the series tomorrow at 1pm.