Fairfield Baseball Clinches Share of MAAC Regular-Season Title

For the first time in more than three decades (1983), the Fairfield University baseball team will at least share the best regular season record in the MAAC. That was back when ECAC Hall of Famer and former Stags star Don Cook was the head coach.

The Stags picked up their 16th conference win of the year and clinched at least a share of the regular season championship with a doubleheader split against Quinnipiac yesterday (Thursday, May 19). After dropping a close 5-4 decision in the opener, sophomore Gavin Wallace showed poised beyond his years, tossing a complete game in the nightcap as the Stags defeated the Bobcats 6-2.

Fairfield will try to clinch the top overall seed in next week's MAAC tournament when the Stags host Quinnipiac ‎again this afternoon (Friday, May 20) with first pitch at 1:00 PM on "Senior Day" at Alumni Field. Ceremonies begin at 12:30 PM.

Today will be the final time the Class of 2016 will put their spikes on Alumni Diamond, looking to make a memory they will never forget.

“It will be something they will remember for the rest of their lives that’s for sure,” head coach Bill Currier said. “I think they’re excited for the tournament and to get the number one seed would be a nice memory for them.”

Back to the standout performance by Wallace: “I really wanted the ball,” he said. “When we hit like that, we’re not going to lose too many games. We’ve seen that all year, our hitters have been fantastic all year, and (today) just another example of that.”

“It certainly is a milestone for this program,” said Currier. “To win it now with an 11-team league, we have another game to go to make it for sure, but just to be in contention for that number one seed is a milestone.”

Wallace and the Stags (28-24, 16-7 MAAC) had to shake off not only the building momentum that Quinnipiac (21-30, 10-13 MAAC) got after an opening win, but also some early bad luck. After Matthew Batten led off the game with a single, he would advance to second on a passed ball and then move to third on a wild pitch before scoring on a balk. Wallace also surrendered another run in the third inning when the ball was lost in the sun, which would have ended the inning.

Down 2-0, the Fairfield bats went to work. Tyler Gambardella led off the inning with a perfectly placed drag bunt, setting the scene for the middle of the Stags lineup. Fairfield would hit three-straight doubles as the two-baggers from Kevin Radziewicz, Mac Crispino, and Brendan Tracy each plated a run and gave the Stags a 4-2 lead.

That would be all that the sophomore Wallace would need, but not until he showed some more poised by getting out of a two-on, no-out jam in the fourth. After a single and a hit-by-pitch, Wallace struck out the next two hitters and got the third out on a foul pop-up to third.

After hitting that batter in the fourth, Wallace did not allow another baserunner, retiring nine-straight.

“He struggled coming out of the shoot, but he came back from that,” Coach Currier said. “He showed some character and showed some maturity. That is certainly something that he wouldn’t have done last year, but this year he has that maturity a lot more.”

“Once I made that mistake they were all over me,” Wallace said. “As a pitcher you have to block that out and I think I did a decent job with that.”

The Stags had their chances in the opener with Troy Scocca tying the game in the sixth inning on a triple. The game would go Quinnipiac’s way after three-straight walks in the eighth, coming on 12-straight pitches out of the strike zone.

Fairfield came within feet of tying the game in the bottom half of the frame when Scocca launched a RBI double that one-hopped the centerfield wall. Jake Salpietro almost won the game for the Stags in the bottom of the ninth, but his long fly ball was caught in the deepest part of park.