MAAC Baseball Tournament
Siena College 6, Rider University 3
TRENTON, NJ-Despite
out-hitting Siena 10-8 the Broncs lost to the Saints in the first round
of the Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference Championship Tournament, held
at Mercer County's Waterfront Park Thursday night. "We got hits but
except for the one inning we never put hits together," said Rider head
coach Barry Davis. "It's disappointing."
On Friday Rider
(33-17) will play the fourth seed, Canisius (25-31) at 3pm in the
elimination game. Regular season champion Manhattan (32-17) defeated
Canisius 3-2 on a walk-off bases loaded walk. "Now it comes down to
survival," Davis said.
Rider senior Mike Thomas
(Forest Hill, Md./Fallston), the Rider career leader in wins (29) and
strikeouts (286), struck out 10 but walked a season high five, allowing
three earned runs. It was the fourth time this year Thomas reached
double digits in strikeouts.
"He battled," Davis said. "We didn't play great defense behind him."
Siena (27-28) scored
a run in the sixth on two hits, a sacrifice bunt, a hit batsman and a
walk to take a 5-3 lead. "That was the big hit of the game," Davis said.
Saint Dan Paolini hit his 18th home run of the season to give Siena a 6-3 lead in the ninth.
Senior Steve Galella
(Wilkes-Barre, Pa./G.A.R. Memorial) hit an RBI single in the fourth
inning to get Rider on the board and the Broncs cut the lead to 4-3 in
the fifth with two runs on two hits, including a double by junior Brandon Cotten (Wiconisco, Pa./Williams Valley) and an RBI single by senior Karl Johnston (Hamilton, N.J./Peddie). Cotten then scored on a wild pitch.
Cotten and Johnston each had two hits, along with Rider freshman Nick Crescenzo (Hammonton, NJ/Hammonton).
Siena scored three runs on two hits, two walks, a passed ball and a sacrifice fly to take a 4-0 lead in the third inning.
The Saints took a 1-0 lead with an unearned run in the second inning on an error, a ground out and a single.
Rider senior John Ralston
(Annandale, Va./Paul VI) was robbed of a potential game-tying two-run
home run with two outs in the eighth inning when Siena leftfielder Kyle
Hudson caught his fly ball above the left field wall. "When you are
playing games like this and you dig yourself a hole, it turns into one
of those nights where you aren't getting a lot of breaks," Davis said.
The Broncs ended the 2011 regular season by winning 12 of its final 14 games.
Rider lost two of three to Siena during the regular season.
The Broncs won two
of three against Canisius this year. "We're still alive," Davis said.
"We have another tough game tomorrow. They're in the same boat as we
are. I'm sure it will be a desperation game. If we win that game then
we're playing a team that is coming off a loss. Tournament baseball is
about momentum. We have to get some or were get ready for the fall."
-ru-
