BRONX, NY – The Iona College baseball program dropped the first of three games to the Fordham Rams on Saturday night, 5-1.
Sam Punzi was a strong backstop for Iona catching three rams runners attempting to steal a base.
GAME SUMMARY
Iona starter
Stephen Hansen battled through six innings of work as Fordham was menacing with its consistency. The Rams scored in four of its first five innings innings, tagging Hansen for 11 hits, two walks, five total runs and four earned.
In the bottom of the first inning, Jason Coules doubled to right center, scoring Matt Tarabek to give Fordham the lead. This came after the Gaels had runners on second and third in their first at-bat but came away with nothing.
In the second inning, Nick Labella singled with one out and stole second base. He later scored on a Tarabek single through the left side. The Rams plated a second run in the second inning with Coules again brining home a run. He singled through the right side to score Tarabek and make the score 3-0.
Hansen worked around a pair of errors in the third inning and kept Fordham off the board. The Ram got back on the train in the bottom of the fourth with Labella scoring on an error by Iona on a sacrifice bunt. Fordham scored its last run in the bottom of the fifth on a sacrifice fly by Labella scoring Alvin Melendez.
After stranding a pair of runners in the top of the sixth, the Maroon & Gold finally broke through in the of the seventh inning.
Vicente Mendoza walked on four pitches to lead off, and
Luca Lotito was hit by a pitch to make it first and second.
Will Jennings singled to load the bases. The lone Gael run crossed the plate on a double play groundout by
Jake Liberatore.
Jennings led Iona with two hits and he had the only extra base hit.
Brian Picone,
Jake Field,
Sam Punzi,
Stephen Furman and Mendoza each had one hit a piece.
James Gosweiler and
Antonio Velardi combined to throw three innings of scoreless relief.
Fordham's Matt Mikuklsi earned the win going 5.2 innings allowing five hits, two walks and zero runs.
UP NEXT
The Maroon & Gold play two games against the Fordham Rams on Sunday, March 8. First pitch for game on at Houlihan Park is set for 11:00 AM. Fans of the Gaels can follow the action via
live stats.
SOCIAL MEDIA
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