MAAC Baseball Tournament
Rider University 4, Canisius College 2
Rider Wins MAAC Championship, Heading to NCAAs
FISHKILL, NY--Rider won its second Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference Championship in the last three years by defeating Canisius Friday. The third seed, Rider (36-21) won the four-team, double elimination tournament in three straight, also defeating the second seed, Marist, and Canisius.
Rider will now make its 10th trip to an NCAA Regional in the last 27 years, its second trip in the last three years. "It's a good feeling," said Rider head coach Barry Davis. "It really is."
Junior A.J. Albee (Ashley, Pa./Hanover Area) collected six runs, five hits, four RBI in the tournament with two doubles and a home run and was named the tournament MVP. Albee set new Rider single-season records this season for runs scored (62), RBI (60) and assists (173).
"If you watch AJ play day-in and day-out you realize how good he really is," Davis said of his team MVP. "He gets clutch hits, he turns tough double plays. He is just a solid player."
"It feels great for all the seniors on the team," said Albee, a junior. "We won it for them. It was a great tournament. All four teams are good and anyone of them could have won it. We just came through in the end."
Third-year sophomore Patrick Devlin (Richboro, Pa./Council Rock North) struck out a season-high seven while allowing just six hits for his seventh win of the season and was named to the all-tournament team.
"I thought Devlin was outstanding," Davis said. "That was one of the best games he's thrown all year."
"Maybe the best game I've thrown since I've been at Rider," said Devlin, who is now 10-8 in his Bronc career. "It felt great. I just left it all out on the field. Championship game, nothing better than this."
"Devlin threw great," Albee said. "That's the best I've seen him throw. Canisius is really good and he shut them down."
"He looked like he wanted to be out there," Davis said. "Nothing rattled him. He was getting the leadoff guy out a lot." Devlin retired the leadoff batter in the first seven innings. "If you told me he was going to pitch (a season-high) eight innings and give up just two runs, against that team, well that is almost a pipedream. Canisius is that good."
Rider took a 1-0 lead in the fourth inning when senior Nick Wojnowski (Baldwin, Md./Calvert Hall) walked and eventually scored on a ground out by senior Eric Woodrow (Hamilton, N.J./Hamilton West).
Wojnowski, a Second Team All-MAAC selection, is Rider's leading hitter batting .400. In the tournament Wojnowski collected three hits, scored four runs and knocked in three runs with two home runs and was named to the all-tournament team along with sophomore Brandon Cotten (Wiconisco, Pa./Williams Valley), who collected five hits, four runs and one RBI in the tournament, and junior Mason Heyne (Shrewsbury, Pa./Susquehannock), who had three hits and three RBI in the tournament.
The Broncs took a 4-0 lead in the seventh inning when freshman Adam Wayman (Wilkes-Barre, Pa./G.A.R. Memorial) was hit by a pitch with the bases loaded, followed by two bases loaded walks to Woodrow and junior Steve Galella (Wilkes-Barre, Pa./G.A.R. Memorial).
Freshman Tyler Smith (Westmont/Haddon Twp.) pitched a three-up, three down ninth inning for his ninth save of the season.
The Regional sites will be announced Sunday afternoon and the entire field of teams and brackets will be announced Monday afternoon at 12:30 on ESPN. "To me, it makes you feel like you belong with the best teams in the country," Davis said. "Your feel like you are a part of it, and that's exciting. I don't care where they send us. When we are sitting there in that room and our name comes up we'll be excited to go wherever they send us."
Canisius (39-21), the top seed, eliminated Manhattan (31-20), the fourth seed, Friday afternoon and Friday night out-hit the Broncs 6-3.
The victory was Rider's 10th in a row, the longest streak since winning 10 in a row during the 2002 season. Rider has won 16 of its last 18 since losing three straight at Canisius. "At that point we were just concerned about getting into the tournament," Davis said. "We had a stretch were we had to do some things and winning eight out of nine conference games just got us in by a game. Something started to click. We have a great group of guys and that had a lot to do with it."
The 36 wins sets a new Rider record for wins in a season. "It is nice to be able to be compared with some of the great Rider teams that coach Pittaro and Coach Petroff had," Davis said.
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