Kyle Martin closes the door with the four-out save.
Fordham 3, Army 2 pic.twitter.com/bJMZ3tH1Pv
— Axcess Baseball LI (@axcessbaseball) February 21, 2018
It felt more like the middle of June than February 21, but the players, coaches and spectators were not going to complain.
The Fordham Rams topped Army, 3-2, on a 70-degree day. Make no mistake, this was extremely unusual as the Rams have never even played a home game this early in the season. The roll-of-the-dice worked out, and the Rams treated their home fans to an entertaining game.
Freshman Nick Labella hit his first career home run in the third inning to give the Rams an early lead. It was no cheap home run, either, as it went into the stands well beyond the fence in left-center field. They extended their lead to 2-0 in the fourth inning on an RBI single by Justin Bardwell to score Alvin Melendez. The run was made possible by the aggressive base running of Melendez who legged out a single on a chopper, stole second and advanced to third when he caused the pitcher to balk.
Army cut the lead in half on an RBI single by Jon Rosoff to score Jax Luzinski. They were threatening to tie the game but Brandon Nance coaxed a 4-6-3 inning ending double play to end the threat.
In the home half of the seventh, it was Labella again who provided insurance for the Rams. He ripped a single to center field to score Bardwell, who ran over the catcher on a very aggressive play.
“It’s something that we talk about,” said Head Coach Kevin Leighton. “We don’t want to give ground, it was a bang-bang play–a close play. We’re fortunate it went our way. I ask our guys to play hard and we did that,” he added.
In the top of the eighth, Mat Hudgins smoked a solo shot to right-center field to cut the lead to 3-2. After a single and a hit by pitch put runners on 1st & 2nd with two-out, Kyle Martin was summoned from the bullpen, tasked with putting out the fire. The flame-throwing sophomore was more than up to the task as he blew away pinch-hitter Garrett Houston with an 89-MPH heater upstairs.
“My mentality coming into a pressure situation like that is kind of just to attack the hitter,” said Martin following the game. “Don’t give them any free bases, that’s the No. 1 priority–throw strikes and just attack,” he added.
Martin wound up coming back out for the ninth and easily retired the side, including a strikeout of the final batter to preserve the 3-2 victory for the Rams.
John Stankiewicz was awarded the victory despite pitching only 2.1 IP as the starter, the official scorer was able to use discretion when naming the victor being that six pitchers threw and none went longer than seven outs.
The Rams are a young team but they have plenty of power arms that could be weapons in the late innings such as Martin, Matt Mikulski, Brian Weissert, Joseph Quintal, among others.
With the win, they improve to 2-1-1 on the young season. They will now travel to Tampa, FL this weekend for a three-game set against USF.
