POUGHKEEPSIE, New York - The Marist baseball team beat the Fairfield Stags by a score of 8-4 on a rainy, Saturday afternoon at McCann Field.
 
The teams traded runs early, as the game was tied 3-3 heading into the bottom of the sixth inning. The Red Foxes' offense stayed hot, scoring five runs between the sixth and seventh innings to earn the 8-4 win.
 

Summary

Marist 8, Fairfield 4 - W: Yetter (1-0), L: Tolis (0-2)

• The Red Foxes got their offense going in the fourth inning when Gavin Noriega led off the inning with a lead-off single through the gap in left-center field. With one out in the inning, Donnie Stone singled to right field, sending Noriega to third. Dylan Hoy's sacrifice bunt drove in Noriega for the first run of the game, giving the Red Foxes a 1-0 lead.
• Fairfield's Matt Zaffino led off the top of the fifth inning with a double into right field. With one out in the inning, Griffin Watson doubled to center field, scoring Zaffino and tying the game 1-1.
• Freshman Nate Lincoln singled up the middle into center field to lead off the bottom of the fifth inning. After a Gene Napolitano walk, Reece Armitage placed a sac bunt to the pitcher to advance runners to second and third with one out. A wild pitch scored Lincoln and advanced Napolitano, giving the Red Foxes a one-run lead. With two outs in the inning, Noriega singled into the gap in right-center field, extending the lead to 3-1 Marist.
• With two runners on and two outs in the top of the sixth inning, Zaffino's RBI single into shallow left field to cut the Marist lead to one. Starter Erubiel Candelario was then replaced by reliever Brian Yetter. Dean Ferrara singled into center field to score another run and tie the game 3-3.
• Stone reached first on a throwing error at the start of the bottom of the sixth. Stone advanced to third via wild pitch and Justin Kapuscinski walked to put runners on first and third. With two outs in the inning, Gene Napolitano doubled down the right-field line to score Stone and break the tie. Reece Armitage then singled into left, scoring Kapuscinski to give the Red Foxes a 5-3 lead. Napolitano was thrown out trying to advance home to end the inning.
• The Red Foxes' offense remained hot in the seventh inning as Donnie Stone singled into right field with one out, scoring Brian Hart to extend the lead. An error by the shortstop allowed Stone to advance all the way to third, also scoring Noriega, giving the Red Foxes a 7-3 lead. The very next at-bat, Hoy singled into left field to score Stone.
• Reece Armitage was able to keep the Red Fox lead at five runs in the top of the eighth inning when he robbed what would have been Matt Venuto's lead-off home run at the wall in center field.
• Yetter stayed in to close out the rest of the game. With runners on first and third with one out, Matt Bergevin's RBI single up the middle into center field to cut the Red Fox lead to four but it wasn't enough as Marist recorded the last two outs and won the contest 8-4.

 

Stats

• Dylan Hoy led the Red Foxes with two RBIs. He went 1-for-3 and had a stolen base.
• Reece Armitage, Gavin Noriega, and Donnie Stone each had two hits and one RBI.
• Gene Napolitano went 1-for-3 with an RBI double.
• Erubiel Candelario struck out five over 5.2 innings pitched with six hits and three earned runs.
• Brian Yetter earned the win, striking out four batters over pitching 3.1 innings while allowing only two hits with one earned run.

 

Up Next

The Red Foxes improve to 11-7 on the season and 1-1 in conference play. Marist will return to McCann Field Sunday to play Fairfield in the final game of a three-game series. The first pitch is scheduled for 1 p.m.