After coming off a rough weekend where the Stags dropped two against Atlantic Coast Conference rival University of Pittsburgh, Fairfield was set to host cross-town rivals Sacred Heart. Although the game was forced into extra innings after an offensive explosion by the Sacred Heart Pioneers, the Stags were able to battle back, where they finished in walk-off fashion and won 8-7.

The Stags came out swinging in the second inning, as they started the inning with two men on base followed by an RBI double by Billy Zolga ‘15 to drive in the first run of the ballgame. With runners on first and second, Michael Conti ‘17 laid down a bunt which pushed in a run. After a hit by pitch, the Stags had the bases loaded with no outs. Sacred Heart committed an error and another Stag crossed home plate giving them a 3-0 lead. Senior Sebastian Salvo came to the plate where he drove in the fourth run of the inning on a groundout. The Stags finished the inning up 4-0.

Junior Aaron Howell was on the mound for Fairfield and pitched solid through the first three innings without giving up a run. The fourth inning started for Sacred Heart with a hit batter, followed by a single and a RBI groundout. The Pioneers were now on the scoreboard down by three. Howell gave up a walk to put runners on first and third with just one out. Then, the bats for Sacred Heart woke up, as they were able to get four runs on three consecutive hits to take the lead 5-4.

“He cruised very well for three innings,” said head coach Bill Currier of Howell’s performance during the fourth inning, “then he seemed to just explode and couldn’t find the strike zone.”

Currier made a pitching change and brought in Anthony DiMauro ‘15 for relief, but not before the Pioneers scored seven runs on the inning.

DiMauro pitched 3.2 innings of scoreless ball, striking out two along the way.

“When Tony’s [DiMauro] down, he’s got good movement on his pitches and then he elevates once in a while and gets some guys chasing,” said Currier. “When he’s down, he is going to get ground balls and he did a good job of that.”

DiMauro pitched well enough to give the Stags an opportunity to make a comeback.

At the bottom of the sixth with bases loaded with two outs, Salvo came to the plate. After a long at bat, Salvo made just enough contact and reach based on an error by Sacred Heart, which allowed two runs to score to bring the Stags to a one run deficit, 6-7.

“It definitely put the momentum in our favor, personally it gave me a lot more confidence going up for my next at-bat and it lets the team breathe a little and relax,” said Salvo. “It made us realize that we had a chance to actually come back and win this game if we put a few hits together.”

The Stags scored once more in the bottom of eighth after an RBI single from Mac Crispino ‘17.

After a scoreless ninth inning, the game headed into extra innings. After retiring the side at the top of the 10th, the Stags looked to close out the game in the bottom half of the inning.

Conti came to the plate and hit a triple. The Stags now had a runner on third with less than two outs. Sophomore Troy Scocca came into the game to pitch hit for Alex Witkus ‘15. Scocca connected on a pitch and drove in the winning run to start the celebration on Alumni Diamond.

“Scocca’s one of our quicker bats and good hitters. If he [Scocca] was patient and let the ball get to the zone, he was going to hit the ball hard somewhere,” said Currier. “It’s nice to have a kid with a pretty quick bat to hit with the infield drawn in, an ideal hitting situation.”

Scocca, who was joined by his entire team on the field after his hit, was humble about the game winning run.

“Everybody is excited, this is a big morale booster,” said Scocca. “Hopefully, we can carry this into the weekend and take this energy and the way we played today and just incorporate it to the rest of our games this season.”

The win was a big one for the Stags, especially for Salvo, who just broke a program record by setting a new record of 313 defensive chances without committing an error.

“Without my teammates, I wouldn’t be able to have those chances so I see it as a team record. It means that we’re playing good defense all around the field,” said Salvo. “It feels good but I want to win more conference games and get to the tournament.”

The team can look to better their record as they make the trip to Stony Brook tomorrow for their second to last weekday contest of the season.

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