Box Score NORWICH, Conn- The Sacred Heart baseball team erased an early five-run deficit, but Fairleigh Dickinson took the lead for good with two runs in the fifth and three more in the sixth proved to be the difference in an 11-8 victory over the Pioneers in an elimination game of the 2016 Northeast Conference Baseball Tournament on Saturday afternoon at Dodd Stadium.
The loss ends Sacred Heart's season with a record of 30-28, the Pioneers' fourth 30-win season in the last seven years, and denied SHU a spot in its eighth consecutive NEC Championship game.
Trailing 11-6 after that three-run sixth inning, Sacred Heart made it interesting with two runs in the seventh. Jayson Sullivan and PJ DeFilippo both singled and Zack Short drove in Sullivan with a double to right center.
Reliever Tim Quinn came on and the first batter he faced, Cody Doyle, singled home another run to cut the deficit to 11-8. Still with runners on first and third with one out, Quinn limited the damage to just that with a fly out to shallow left and then another to center.
Jeff Stoddard threw a scoreless inning of relief in the seventh, and following a 1-2-3 eighth for SHU, did the same in the eighth to give the Pioneers an opportunity to rally in the ninth.
Victor Sorrento started that rally with a lead off single up the middle, and despite back-to-back fly outs, Doyle kept the game alive with a two-out single to bring the tying run to the plate. Once more though, Quinn worked his way out of it, this time with a strike out, to send Fairleigh Dickinson to the title game and earn his first career save.
In a game with 19 runs, nine of which were unearned, Quinn threw 2.2 scoreless innings. That sealed the win for starter Chris Kachmar, who gave up two earned runs and four more that counted as unearned. He worked around five walks and four hits before passing the ball to E. Layne, who was charged with the two seventh innings runs on three hits in 1.1 frames.
Four of those nine unearned runs came in a five-run first inning for FDU. John Giaksas doubled to center to open the scoring before Bobby Romano delivered the big blow, a three-run triple, after what should have been the third out. Jason Fatzinger followed that with a single to put the Knights in a dominant position.
SHU had an immediate answer though in the form of Dan Schock's two-out, three-run home run, his team-best ninth of the season. All three of those runs were charged as unearned as well after a one-out throwing error gave the Pioneers their first base runner of the afternoon.
Three walks loaded the bases for Sacred Heart in the fourth, but Kachmar kept the lead in tact with an inning-ending strikeout. He could not escape trouble in the fifth though, as the Pioneers came all the way back to tie it in large part to yet another one-out error. Sorrento, DeFilippo and Short all made the Knights pay with consecutive RBI base hits with two outs to tie the score at six.
Fairleigh Dickinson wasted no time in jumping back on top, taking advantage of two walks when Jason Fatzinger followed a sacrifice bunt with a softly hit ground ball thatwent just underneath the glove of a diving Sorrento at first on reliever Baylor Sundahl's first pitch of the game. Giakas extended the advantage to three with a solo homer before three straight singles by Patrick McClure, Joel Roman and Bobby Romano loaded the bases for Fatzinger, who came through with the eventual game-winner, yet another single that plated two.
Those were RBI's number four and five for Fatzinger, who along with Giakas, finished with a game-high three hits. Giakas was a triple shy of the cycle and added three RBI's himself. Romano added three RBI's as well in a 2-2 performance.
Spots number four through seven in the lineup, Sorrento, DeFilippo, Short and Doyle, each had two hits, a walk and at least one RBI for Sacred Heart. DeFilippo also scored three runs, with Sorrento and Short adding one each. Short had two RBI's.
Stoddard provided the best pitching performance for Sacred Heart, as he allowed just one hit in 2.1 innings. Starter Jason Foley was unlucky to give up five runs on four hits in his only frame after an error permitted FDU to score the four unearned runs.
Brent Teller came on in the second, and after surrendering an unearned run himself, went on to throw a scoreless third and fourth before allowing two earned in the fifth to earn the loss. He gave up just two hits but walked three and also hit two batters. Sundahl relieved him in the fifth and would go on to give up three runs on six hits in 1.1 frames.
