BRONX, NY - The Iona College baseball team came up short in its road matchup falling 9-5, to Fordham on Wednesday afternoon. The Gaels led 2-1 after three innings of play but the Rams rallied for five runs in the fourth to ultimately change the tide of the non-conference contest.
GAME SUMMARY
Trailing 1-0 entering the second, Iona quickly rallied with
Chris Mariani driving in the Gaels first run of the game on an RBI double to left field. During the next at-bat,
Phoenix Bowman came around to score on a wild pitch to give Iona a 2-1 advantage.
The lead stayed in tack with reliever
Michael Untracht throwing a scoreless second and third inning. Untracht retired the first three batters he faced and in the fourth, added a strikeout while working around two singles to keep the Rams off the board.
Fordham broke through in the fourth, scoring five runs off of four hits and three walks in the inning. Iona traded two-outs for the go-ahead run, turning a 5-5-3 double play with the bases-loaded but the big hit came on a two-run RBI double from Cian Sahler to extend the home team's lead to 6-2.
Entering the eighth the Gaels now trailed 9-2, and similar to Sunday's contest Iona managed to close the gap in its last two plate appearances. With the bases-loaded after a walk and singles from
Luca Lotito and Bowman,
Matt Wessels making his fourth straight start, drove in Lotito on a sac-fly to cut the score to 9-3.
With Jennings on second base,
Jake Field brought him in on an RBI double down the left field line to begin the ninth inning. Two batters later, Lotito added an RBI with a single up the middle that scored Field but the rally stalled there with Fordham securing the 9-5 victory on a pop-up.
NOTABLE NUGGETS
- Paul Sullivan returned to the mound for the first in three weeks and after letting up a run on a sac-fly, Sullivan recovered, getting two straight outs to leave the runners stranded on second and third in his lone inning of work.
- Bowman had a career day at the plate going 4-5 with four singles. The four hits are a career-high and he's now the second straight player to record four hits in a game with Polinsky doing it on Sunday.
- Field had two doubles on the day and his RBI in the ninth brings to 15 on the season which is currently best on the club.
- Lotito added two hits along with ninth inning RBI to bring him to 14 runs batted in on the season '22 season.
- Wessels has now recorded an RBI in three of his first four career starts, batting in seventh spot.
UP NEXT
Iona is right back in action tomorrow afternoon for another non-conference matchup, this time traveling to Queens to take on the Red Storm of St. Johns. First pitch is scheduled for 3:00 PM.
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