NIAGARA FALLS, New York – With an 11-8 victory over the Fairfield Stags, the Marist baseball team is headed to the championship round of the 2017 Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference Championship on Saturday (TBD).
This is the first appearance for the Red Foxes in the championship round since 2009 when Marist also won their most recent MAAC Championship.
Junior Andrew Rouse led the Red Foxes offensively on the day with two hits, two runs scored and three RBI. Redshirt senior Matt Pagano finished with two hits, his first home run of the season and first since his freshman year (2013), one run scored and two RBI and redshirt freshman Tyler Kapuscinski had two hits, two runs scored and two RBI. Redshirt junior Greg Kocinski and junior Matt Iantosca each had one hit and one RBI, sophomore Randy Taveras finished with two hits and two runs scored, senior Tyler Kirkpatrick had two hits and one run scored and sophomore Frankie Gregoirefinished with one hit and two runs scored.
On the mound, junior and MAAC Pitcher of the Year Charlie Jerla threw four innings and gave up five runs on seven hits with three walks and three strikeouts and senior John Parisi picked up his third win of the year, pitching two and two thirds innings while giving up one run on two hits with one walk and one strikeout. Junior Mike Coss threw one and two thirds innings and gave up two runs on three hits with three strikeouts and junior Tony Romanelli got his team leading eighth save of the season, pitching two thirds of an inning while surrendering no runs on no hits with two strikeouts.
Marist opened the scoring in the bottom of the second inning when Rouse led off with a single and Kapuscinski followed with a single to center and advanced to second on the throw with Rouse moving up to third. Two batters later, Pagano laced an RBI single to right field that scored Rouse and it was 1-0 Marist.
One inning later, Taveras and Gregoire led off with back-to-back singles to set up men on first and second and Kocinski followed with a sac bunt that moved the runners to second and third. Rouse followed with an RBI single up the middle that scored Taveras and the lead was 2-0.
In the bottom of the third, the Stags answered with two runs on a walk, an RBI triple to left center and an RBI sac fly to even the score at 2-2.
The Red Foxes regained the lead at 3-2 in the top of the fourth when Pagano smacked a solo home run to right center for his first home run of the season and first since his freshman year (2013).
One inning later, Gregoire walked with one out, two batters later, Rouse walked and Kapuscinski reached and advanced to second on an error by the second baseman that allowed Gregoire to score. Iantosca followed, reaching on a throwing error by the third baseman that scored Rouse and Kapuscinski and it was 6-2 Marist.
In the bottom of the inning, Fairfield trimmed the deficit to 6-5 on a walk, single, RBI double and a two RBI single all with no outs. Parisi replaced Jerla on the hill and after a single, stranded the tying and go ahead runs on base with a pop up to himself and back-to-back ground outs.
For the fifth consecutive inning, the Red Foxes scored in the top of the sixth. Following a Stag pitching change, Kirkpatrick led off with a walk and stole second during the next at bat. Taveras walked and after a second Fairfield pitching change, Taveras and Kirkpatrick advanced to second and third on a wild pitch before Gregoire was intentionally walked to load the bases. After a fielder's choice ground out by Kocinski, Rouse followed with an RBI sac fly that scored Kirkpatrick to extend the lead to 7-5.
After the first two 1-2-3 half innings in the seventh, Fairfield again trimmed the deficit to one run at 7-6 on a leadoff walk, a ground out that advanced the runner to second and an RBI double to right. With the tying run on second, Parisi got the next batter to pop out to the shortstop and Coss replaced Parisi on the mound and stranded the tying run with a huge strikeout swinging.
In the top of the eighth, Marist extended its lead when Kirkpatrick led off with a double to left center, advanced to third on a sac bunt by Taveras and Gregoire followed, reaching on his second consecutive intentional walk. With a left handed pitcher on the mound and a runner being held on at first base, head coach Chris Tracz arguably made the game winning situational call, with Kocinski bunting and singling down the first base line with Gregoire moving up to third and Kirkpatrick scoring on a throwing error by the first baseman. With the same situation of a runner being held on at first and a lefty on the hill, Tracz then made the same call again, this time with Rouse moving Kocinski to second and scoring Gregoire on a sacrifice bunt. Freshman Matt Rubayo pinch ran for Kocinski at second and advanced to third on a passed ball, before Kapuscinski ripped an RBI double to left center, scoring Rubayo and Iantosca followed with an RBI single up the middle that scored Kapuscinski for the 11-6 lead.
In the bottom of the inning, the Stags answered with a run on a two out single and RBI triple to left center to trim the deficit to 11-7.
Down to their final three outs, Fairfield made some noise in the bottom of the ninth with a lead off hit by pitch. After a ground out advanced the runner to second, an RBI single up the middle made it 11-8 with two outs. Romanelli then replaced Coss on the mound and secured the Championship round berth, getting the final batter to strike out swinging.
Up next, the #2 Red Foxes will play either #1 Fairfield, #3 Canisius or #4 Iona, pending prior results, in the MAAC Championship final round on Saturday at a time to be determined.
