College Baseball: Rider Sweeps Fairfield U in Saturday's Doubleheader
Media Release April 19th
Rider Reaches 20 Wins
FAIRFIELD,
CT—The Broncs scored 29 runs to sweep Fairfield in a Metro Atlantic
Athletic Conference doubleheader Saturday.
In the first game, Rider batted around in the eighth inning, scoring six runs to take a 16-7 lead. Fairfield scored two runs in the ninth inning on a double and home run for the final score.
Rider
broke a 6-6 tie with four runs in the seventh inning on three hits and
two Stag errors, the biggest hit of the inning a two-run single by
sophomore Eric Woodrow (Hamilton, N.J./Hamilton West). Woodrow
hit a two-run double in the eighth inning to blow the game open, 15-7.
Junior Sean Olson
(Vineland, N.J./St. Augustine Prep) hit a three-run home run in the
eighth inning to give Rider a 13-7 lead. It was Olson’s eighth home run
of the season, the most by a Bronc since Scott Rich hit 15 in 2004. ”
Rider took a 6-4 lead in the fifth inning on a two-run home run by junior Maurice Williams
(Ocean, N.J./Monmouth Regional), his fourth of the year.
Rider took a 4-2 lead in the fourth inning on an RBI double by sophomore Matt McCollum (Tabernacle, N.J./Shawnee).
Trailing 2-0, Rider took a 3-2 lead in the third inning when senior David Hayes (Sunrise, Fla./American Heritage) hit an RBI double and freshman Mason Heyne (Shrewsbury, Pa./Susquehannock) hit a two-run single, all with two outs.
Heyne,
Woodrow and McCollum each had three of Rider’s 17 hits in the first
game. Rider scored nine of its first 10 runs with two outs, and 13 of
the 17 in the game with two outs. “Clutch hits with two outs are huge,”
Davis said.
Heyne was four for eight in the doubleheader and is 14 for his last 23.
Junior pitcher Mike Petrowski
(Hamilton Square, N.J./Steinert) started and went five and one-third
innings, striking out six and left the game with a 6-4 lead. Petrowski
now has 24 strikeouts in his last 19.2 innings.
Freshman Mike Thomas (Forest Hill, Md./Fallston) got the win in relief, his third, pitching three and two-thirds innings, striking out four.
In the second game, junior James Hayes
(Sunrise, Fla./Piper) hit a grand slam home run in the third inning to
give the Broncs (20-14, 9-5 MAAC) a 9-0 lead. “Jamie had a big hit to
open it up,” Davis said. “That took it from 5-0 to 9-0.”
A two-run double by D. Hayes gave Rider a 12-2 lead in the fifth inning.
Junior Jimmer Kennedy
(Levittown, Pa./Holy Ghost Prep) struck out seven in a seven-inning
complete game, earning his team-high fourth win of the season and the 14th of his career.
Rider
scored three runs in the first inning on four hits, the biggest hits
being RBI singles by Williams and D. Hayes.
Another
RBI by D. Hayes in the second inning made it 4-0 and an RBI single by
Williams made it 5-0 in the third inning. D. Hayes had six RBI on the
day, while Williams had five.
Fairfield
(10-24, 8-6 MAAC) scored two runs in the third inning on a pair of
hits, a walk and a hit batsman to break up the shutout.
Rider senior Jon Leise (Woodbury, N.J./West Deptford) scored three runs in the second game.
Freshman John Ralston (Annandale, Va./Paul VI), J. Hayes, D. Hayes and Williams each had two of Rider’s 12 hits in the second game.
Rider
has now won seven of the last eight games, nine of the last 12 and 12
of the last 17 games. “We came off a good series at Iona and kept the
momentum going for this series,” Davis said.
The Broncs have defeated the Stags 34 times in 49 meetings but Fairfield swept the series with Rider 3-0 to end the Broncs’ 2007 season. “
The third game of the series at Fairfield is Sunday at 12 noon.
-ru-
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