Facing a 10-6 deficit in the top of the eighth inning in its game against Siena on Sunday in Albany, the Fairfield baseball team found the motivation it has struggled to find this season.
After loading the bases with no outs, the Stags scored 12 runs to take an 18-10 lead and secured a victory in the ninth inning.
The win moved the team’s MAAC record to 8-4, which put the team into second place in the conference, behind 8-1 Canisius. With half of the season still remaining, though, Head Coach John Slosar stressed the importance of his team continuing to improve and not letting the team’s early season success distract them from reaching their ultimate goal.
“It is too early to tell [how the season will end],” said Slosar. “It is good to get off to a good start, but we are just halfway there.”
Slosar said that the Stags still have a lot of time to improve in all facets of the game.
“I can go down the list. Pitching, defense and offense all need to [improve],” said Slosar. “I have been happy with the MAAC play, but we still need to improve overall.”
On Saturday, the Stags started the Siena series with a win in the first half of the doubleheader. Fairfield took an early 2-1 lead on a David Dudish ’10 home run, and then held on until the eighth inning, when it broke the game open with a pair of two-run home runs by Jason Rago ’10 and Peter Allen ’08.
In the second game of the doubleheader, the Stags fell on their faces and lost 20-6. The Saints started quick with a seven run first inning off of Ryan Calabrese ’08 and four runs in the second off of reliever Rick Piccirillo ’10.
The Stags were led by their third baseman Dudish, who was named the MAAC Player of the Week. The Olney, Md. native hit .467 (7-for-15) to go along with five RBI. Dudish has hit safely in seven of the Stags last eight games.
“David does an outstanding job defensively,” said Slosar. “His offense was behind him earlier in the season, but now it is catching up.”
Fairfield has continued to get solid contributions from shortstop Tucker Nathans, who leads the team in batting average at .343 and on-base percentage at .430.
Sophomores Dan Urbanovich and Rob Gariano have been the leaders on the mound.
Urbanovich is 3-0 with a 4.18 ERA in 15 appearances out of the bullpen, while Gariano is 4-2 with a 4.75 ERA in 10 games, eight of which were starts.
Fairfield struggled out of the gate, starting the season with a 2-7 record in Florida and then returning to the Northeast. Upon returning north, the Stags continued to struggle and lost seven of eight games. The team has since began to rebound once the MAAC season began. The Stags have won three of their four series so far this year in the conference, with their only series loss coming against Niagara, 2-1.
“On weekends [conference games] we have played extremely well,” said Slosar. “We need to improve our play during the week. We have overcome some big early deficits and we need to carry that success over to the weekdays.”
With Big East clubs and nationally ranked teams providing challenging games early in the season, Slosar feels the Stags are more prepared than most other teams in the conference.
“Only two or three other MAAC teams played challenging schedules,” said Slosar. “Other teams played weaker schedules and loaded up on wins.
“We have played some of those teams head to head and it truly made a difference,” he said.
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