May 17, 2007 - Fairfield 3 Rider 0 / Fairfield 7 Rider 0
May 17, 2007
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
College Baseball
Fairfield University 3, Rider University 0
Fairfield University 7, Rider University 0
LAWRENCEVILLE—The Broncs managed just two hits in the doubleheader, losing a pair of Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference games to Fairfield Thursday. "It’s different if one or two guys are struggling," said Rider head coach Barry Davis, "but we’re talking, nine, 10, 11 guys. It is just disappointing."
In the first game, Rider sophomore pitcher Mike Petrowski (Hamilton Square/Steinert) struck out a career-high 12 batters in eight innings of work. It was the most strikeouts for a Rider pitcher since Eric Weiner struck out 13 Canisius batters in 2004. "I think I had 14 strikeouts in a game in high school," Petrowski said. "My fastball felt good today. My curve was working good in the beginning, and at the end my change-up was working a lot, so that was my out pitch."
"Mike pitched good, again," Davis said. "He has pitched well week in and week out, but it doesn’t matter who’s pitching. You can’t get one hit a game and win."
"We happen to run into a hot pitcher the last few times I pitched, but that happens," Petrowski said. "Everybody has a good game once or twice a year, and it just happened to be against me."
The Stags scored the only run they needed when Jason Rago hit his fifth home run of the season to lead off the fourth inning. Fairfield’s Peter Allen hit his team-record 21st double of the season and scored in the eighth inning for the final score.
In the second game sophomore Adam Tussey (Brooklawn/Gloucester) doubled in the first inning, but that was all the offence Rider (20-28, 11-14 MAAC) could produce.
Fairfield (17-28, 11-14 MAAC) scored three runs in the third inning on four hits to take a 4-0 lead, and added three runs in the seventh inning for the final score.
"You have to give Fairfield credit," Davis said. "Their guys threw strikes and their fielders made every play. They made some tough plays and they made the routine plays."
The two losses combined with two wins by Canisius (12-12) over Niagara on Thursday eliminated Rider’s chances for post-season play. "With Canisius winning and Marist winning, it might work out that even if we had won a game or two today it would not have gotten us in," Davis said. "But you play to win every game, no matter what the circumstances are."
Rider plays the season finale Friday at 12 noon against Fairfield. "You obviously want to win the last game of the season at home," Davis said. "We shouldn’t have any pressure, so maybe being more relaxed will help. I don’t know. We certainly want to go out on a winning note."
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