Five straight losses to start the season. Four one-run defeats. Near-upsets of Big East powerhouses Connecticut and St. John’s. It was only a matter of time before luck found its way into the Fairfield dugout.
Maybe all the Fairfield baseball team needed was a little home-cooking.
On Tuesday afternoon, the Stags defeated crosstown rival Sacred Heart, 3-2, at Alumni Diamond. That win came only two days later after the Stags swept Siena in three consecutive games, winning the team’s first conference games.
Fairfield has now won four consecutive games, all in a span of five days. The team has also won five of its past seven games.
Spurring the Fairfield win over Sacred Heat was freshman starting pitcher Sam Robertson, who threw eight sterling innings and limited the Pioneers to three hits and five baserunners en route to his first win of the season.
Robertson, who struck out a career-high ten batters, held Sacred’ Heart hitless through the first 11 at-bats before finally giving up a hit. On the day, the Ridgefield, Conn. native’ held the Pioneers scorelees in all but one of his eight innings.
Aside from the home field advantage, Fairfield’s pitching may be the’ driving force between the team’s recent surge. Collectively, the Stags have held the opposition to four runs or less in four of the team’s last seven games.
Robertson joins a trio of juniors, Rob Gariano, Kevin Fico and Scott Gussaroff and senior Doug Ciallella in the starting rotation. All four have gained valuable experience over the past three years, which is finally starting to pay off for the Stags.
With the exception of a 10-8 victory this past Sunday, Fairfield pitching held Siena to just five runs over two games in the teams’ doubleheader on March 21.
After a rocky first inning in which Siena jumped out to a two-run lead, junior starter Rob Gariano rebounded and held Siena scoreless for seven innings. In fact, the right-hander did not allow a hit in four of his next five innings following the Saints’ two-run first.
Senior Dan Gallagher finished the game in relief of Gariano, adding to the’ Fairfield bullpen’s recent success. Over the team’s past four games, the bullpen has combined for only one earned run in 3 1/3 inning.
The Stags won all four of those games.
In the second game of the two-game set, Fico threw a complete game and limited the Saints to just three hits over seven innings.
Cumulatively, Fairfield has recorded an earned run average of 4.32, limiting the opposition to a .207 batting average and 12 earned runs over 25 innings.
Robertson, who also threw a quality start on Mar. 16 against UConn, is one of several freshman that has developed into a key contributor. In addition to Robertson and relief pitcher’ Scott Warwick, freshman shortstop Mark Skrapits is developing into one of Fairfield’s most consistent threats in the lineup.
Skrapits, a Bronx native who was recently named the Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference (MAAC) Rookie of the Week for the second consecutive week, has started every game this season and has taken advantage of the opportunity. As of Tuesday’s game against Sacred Heart, the rookie boasted a .376 batting average, third on the team, and tied for the overall lead in runs batted in with 12, joining sophomore Tucker Nathans and fellow freshman Ryan Furbeck.
Most recently, Skarpits torched Siena in the first three games of his’ collegiate career, collecting six hits in ten at-bats and four RBIs.
The Stags look to continue the winning trend on the road this weekend in a three-game set with University of Maryland, Baltimore County (UMBC).’
The Retrievers, who have lost two of their previous five games, face in-state rival Maryland prior to the doubleheader against the Stags on Saturday afternoon.
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