Baseball: In a preseason poll, the Stags were set to finish second in the Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference, but currently the team stands in last place. After playing one of the toughest conference lineups, the team was hopeful for success, but failed to come together. As the season winds down, Fairfield now has only 11 wins, but 27 losses. Next season, the Stags are set to have a good pitching staff behind right handed pitchers Mike Wallace ’16 and Kyle Dube ’17. Wallace finished the season with a 4.45 ERA along with 36 strikeouts. Dube finished with a 3.65 ERA and struck out 25 opponents. The Stags look to bring in new faces to the diamond after the departure of this year’s seniors.
Softball: The women’s softball team still has a significant amount of time left to play in their spring season, but they currently stand in fourth place. In the preseason poll, the Stags were voted to finish second in the MAAC, right behind the Marist Red Foxes. This weekend, the Stags captured a pivotal win in the doubleheader against Marist, who were voted to finish first in the pre-season poll. With the win against Marist, the team currently holds a 11-5 record, posting a .688 winning percentage. Their winning percentage has them tied with Siena, who stands in third, and Iona, who currently stands in fourth. Freshman Kate Robinson had made a huge impact on the team so far this season, posting five home runs, 25 hits and 25 RBIs. Behind the base and on the field, Lauren Filicia ‘16 leads her team with 60 putouts and a .380 batting percentage. If the Stags can keep their bats swinging, they hope to cruise in MAAC tournament play a couple of weeks from now.
Men’s and Women’s Tennis: Both the men’s and women’s teams saw their seasons come to an end this past weekend. The men’s team, who was voted to finish fifth in the preseason poll, concluded their season in fifth place, posting a 2-5 record, with wins against Siena and St. Peter’s. Freshmen Brad Orban and Dylan Appel saw the most success in their singles matches, with Orban finishing his first season with the Stags 4-3. Appel had a powerful start to his freshman collegiate tennis career, leading his team with a 4-2 MAAC record. He was the only Stag on the team to earn All-MAAC second team honors this spring. The team will only graduate one senior this spring, Cameron Amyot, which gives them a promising start for the years to come. On the women’s side, Quinnipiac claimed the MAAC title this year after Fairfield fell to Niagara, 4-0, in the semifinal round of the tournament. In the preseason poll, the Stags were picked to finish second, but couldn’t execute to get there. Like the men’s team, the majority of the starting lineup consists of underclassmen, like Helen Abbot ‘18, who had one of the most successful seasons on the team. She finished out her MAAC regular season with a 6-2 overall record in singles play, tieing with Allison Radde ‘15 who will be graduating this spring. The team will only be graduating Radde and Emma Samson ‘15 and under the lead of head coach Jeff Brickley, the team could look to take the MAAC championship in next year’s season.
Golf: For the women’s team, Emma Ritzmann ‘15 powered through the MAAC championship, leading the MAAC individual standings at fourth place which helped her team to finish third in the final championship round in Florida this past weekend. Albany was voted to take the championship and that they did, while Fairfield was able to better the preseason vote by one ranking, finishing third instead of fourth. Ritzmann shot a combined score of 231 which put her at fourth place. Her team shot a combined 956 which put them at third, right in front of Quinnipiac, who concluded the MAAC championship shooting a 958. The women’s golf team will be graduating two dominant seniors this spring, both Ritzmann and Katie Rockwell, who helped the team significantly this season. However, the team can expect Olivia Brooks ‘16 and Michelle Applegate ‘16 to step up and fill the shoes of their graduating members. Although a third place finish is never a bad finish, it was a tough ending for the men’s golf team. The men’s team was expected to take the entire MAAC championship in the preseason poll, but St. Peter’s ended up on top, with the team shooting a combined 885, just nine strokes in front of Fairfield’s third place finish. Senior Steve Burak lead his team in his last collegiate MAAC run with his team, placing fourth overall, shooting a combined score of 220. He was one stroke away from third place. The team will be graduating one of their biggest classes consisting of five seniors, but should see contributions from Alex Taylor ‘16 and Steve Shiner ‘16.
Men’s and Women’s Rowing: The men’s and women’s rowing team have both been dubbed to finish third in the MAAC championships that will be occurring later this month. Fairfield’s men’s and women’s varsity eight boat just had a promising weekend, where they both took wins in their respective races. At the Sacred Heart Invitational, the women’s varsity eight and the second varsity eight team both took home the gold against Sacred Heart, Robert Morris and Iona. If the women’s team can continue on with this momentum, they hope to take down the current MAAC leaders, Jacksonville and Marist, who were voted to take first and second this season. The men’s varsity eight team also had an outstanding weekend as all three races finished in the top four. Fairfield’s A varsity eight boat took the win, with a final time of 7:37.1 which put them ahead of Iona and the other two Fairfield teams in the race. The A team, consisting of Olivia Vita ‘16, Travis Day ‘16, George Bellos ‘16, Alex Nowicki ‘17, Jack Santoro ‘18, Will Quentin ‘18, Jack Carty ‘17, Luke Auger ‘15 and Cameron Bowen ‘15, will look to compete as one of the varsity eight teams in the MAAC championships. The Stags will work to finish even higher than third, but will be forced to take down defending champs Jacksonville and Marist first.
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