Rider secures fourth MAAC win over Mountaineers

By Benjamin Shinault

Rider baseball continued its hot start against Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference opponents with a series win over the Mount St. Mary’s Mountaineers. Over the course of the series, the Broncs tallied 23 runs in three games and had 29 hits.

Making the climb

With dreary weather and rain in the forecast over the weekend, the Broncs and Mountaineers played a doubleheader on April 4. 

First pitch between Rider and Mount St. Mary’s was at 12 p.m., with the Broncs sending senior Brian Young to the mound.

Young, making his seventh start of the season, controlled the pace of the Mountaineers offense, pitching six innings, allowed just one earned run and struck out five.

Young is now tied for fifth in the MAAC with 39 strikeouts and fifth in ERA with an average of 3.24.

The Broncs scored the first three runs in the game to get out to a 3-0 lead. The first was scored in the second inning off a wild pitch and in the third inning, two RBI singles from sophomore catcher Nick Shuhet and freshman infielder Peter Crespo.

Mount St. Mary’s struck hard in the fourth inning taking the lead, 5-3. The slight lead over the Broncs did not last long as in the bottom half of the fourth, sophomore infielder Joe Tiroly blasted a ball over the right field fence for a three-run homerun to give the lead back to Rider, 6-5.

From there, the Mountaineers could not get another lead as the Broncs tallied up seven additional runs to make the final score of game one, 13-9.

After game one, the grounds crew took to the diamond, raked the dirt and redrew the white lines, quickly resuming play for game two.

Taking the mound in game two for the Broncs was freshman Kyle Batt, who was faced with immediate turbulence as the Mountaineers scored five runs on him. Out of the four hits Batt allowed, all four scored. This outing is off the heels of another rough outing for the freshman pitcher.

Coming in for Batt was junior Gavin Hawkes, a usual reliever, who gave the Broncs a starting-quality appearance as he clocked in seven innings, allowed zero runs and struck out three. 

“He’s just been phenomenal,” Tiroly said, “He is absolutely electric … he’s just a dog.”

Down 5-0 by the end of the second inning, Rider got on the board off a freshman first baseman Charley Magoulick RBI single. The Broncs would score one more additional run in the bottom of the second because of an error committed by Mount St. Mary’s.

With the score 5-2, Tiroly stepped up to the plate and once again delivered. Tiroly punished a baseball and watched it sail into the pine trees, bringing the Mountaineers lead to only 5-4. 

After the Tiroly homerun, Rider did not have much left in the tank. The Mountaineers would add one more run in the top of the ninth to make 6-4 the final score.

Gray clouds spewing rain hovered over Sonny Pittaro Field for the series finale. With the series split, interim Head Coach Lee Lipinski sent out junior Clayton Poliey.

Poliey put on a showcase as he ended his outing with six and two thirds innings pitched, allowed two hits, a singular earned run and struck out three. Poliey walked five Mountaineers but was able to perform damage control.

The lone-run that Poliey allowed was in the first inning of a sacrifice fly to give Mount St. Mary’s an early 1-0 edge.

Rider responded immediately in the half of the first with an RBI single from sophomore outfielder Kyle Neri.

In the next inning, knotted up at one, Tiroly did it again, as he launched the ball over the left field fence to give the Broncs the lead, 2-1.

Tiroly, in the Mount St. Mary’s series, hit a home run in each game. As of April 7, he is the MAAC leader in slugging percentage, OPS, homeruns and is fourth in RBI.

“I think I’m just more focused on seeing more pitches,” Tiroly said to his revised batting approach, “during the last two and a half weeks, I haven’t been walking much so it more just getting back to seeing more pitches and trusting myself deeper in the count and trying to do too much with the baseball.”

Coming off the Tiroly homerun, Rider added to their lead with a fielder’s choice that made the score 4-1. The next inning, the Mountaineers were able to get a run off a fielding error but the Broncs would add the run right back with a fielding error. Finally in the bottom of the seventh, Magoulick dropped a ball into right field which scored a run, cementing the final score at 6-4 and winning their fourth conference series of the season.

“Our goal is to always win the series and we are fortunate enough to be able to do that and that’s really just the team goal: winning games and keep doing our thing,” Tiroly said.

Rider’s next opponent is the New Jersey Institute of Technology on April 9. First pitch will be at 6 p.m.