LAWRENCEVILLE, N.J. – The Rider Broncs hit a pair of walk-off home runs on Saturday as the Fairfield University Baseball team fell 2-1 to complete a suspended game and 9-7 in the regular season finale. With the setbacks, the Stags fall to second place in the Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference (MAAC) and will be the number-two seed in the upcoming MAAC Championships held in Pomona, N.Y., next week.
Game One: Rider 2, Fairfield 1 (12)
In a game that lasted almost 48 hours and was suspended due to weather twice, the Stags battled the Broncs for 12 innings before succumbing to a Peter Crespo walk-off homer on the first pitch thrown in the 12th.
The game, originally starting on Thursday, was first suspended in the top of the sixth with the Stags trailing 1-0. After resuming play on Friday,
JP Kuczik tied the game with a single to center, plating
Tyler Kipp.
That would be the score until the ninth inning as
Matthew Grabmann gave the Stags 3.2 solid innings of relief. The right-hander did not allow a hit and struck out three during that stretch.
With two outs and a runner on first in the bottom of the ninth, play would be halted again due to weather and would not restart until Saturday.
Blake Helmstetter took the ball as play resumed and fired 2.1 scoreless innings of relief. The biggest trouble he found himself was in the ninth, but stranded the winning run on second by getting a swinging strikeout.
The Stags got runners on in each of the 10th, 11th, and 12th innings but could not find the go-ahead hit.
TJ Schmalzle led off the 11th with a walk and would eventually steal second and third. Rider was able to get the final out, stranding the go-ahead run 90 feet away.
Helmstetter would retire the Broncs in order in the bottom half to complete his 2.1 innings of work. Rider's Crespo would lead off the 12th with a game-winning solo shot on the first pitch thrown in the frame.
Game Two: Rider 9, Fairfield 7
Back-to-back home runs from
Luke Nomura and
Matthew Bucciero gave the Stags a 7-6 lead in the top of the eighth, a lead they would hold until the bottom of the ninth.
Rider would get two runners on in the bottom of the ninth with one out before Charley Magoulick ended the game with a three-run walk-off homer to give Rider the regular season title and number one seed in the tournament.
Fairfield fell behind 4-0 in the first inning after the Broncs opened the game with two-straight base runners before a three-run home by Joe Tiroly.
The Stags would get a pair of those runs back in the second as
Nick Sturino tripled home a run and would come in to score on a
Sean Meth RBI groundout.
Fairfield would make it a one-run game as Bucciero crushed a two-run shot in the third to put the game at 5-4. Kuczik would again find the tying run with a single to center in the sixth.
The Stags fell behind in the seventh on a Kyle Neri solo shot, before finding their own power surge in the eighth. Nomura and Bucciero would hit back-to-back homers to lead off the eighth to give Fairfield the 7-6 advantage.
Brendon Miller would hold that lead as he retired the Broncs in order in the eighth and then led off the ninth by getting a line out. The Broncs would get their next two hitters on with an error and a walk, setting up Magoulick's heroics for the three-run homer.
Bowen Baker came in out of the bullpen for the first time in nearly two years to throw 4.1 solid frames allowing just the solo homer in the seventh. Miller was also impressive in his two plus innings surrendering just the unearned run in the ninth.
The loss snaps Fairfield's streak of four-straight MAAC Regular Season Championships and will make them the two-seed in the conference championships. Fairfield will begin their title quest at Clover Park in Pomona, N.Y., on Thursday at 11am.
