Baseball clinches regular season title in sweep over Fairfield

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In a thrilling back-and-forth showdown on Saturday, it was freshman Charley Magoulick who delivered the decisive blow, blasting a three-run walk-off homer to lift Rider to a 9-7 win over Fairfield. The win clinched the program's first MAAC regular season title since 2015 and the top seed in the upcoming conference tournament.

In game two of a doubleheader, the Broncs kept the momentum rolling, after a 12-inning win during game one, plating four early runs.

Junior Anthony Paskell led off with a double and junior Erich Hartmann followed with a walk, setting the stage for sophomore Joe Tiroly, who crushed his 17th homer of the season — driving in three runs with no outs.

Four batters later, Magoulick drove in another with an RBI single to make it 4-0.

Fairfield answered with two runs in the top of the second, but freshman Peter Crespo responded in the bottom half with a leadoff solo shot, his second home run of the day, to extend the lead to 5-2. The Stags kept things close, getting a two-run homer in the third before tying the game in the sixth.

Redshirt sophomore Kyle Neri briefly put Rider back in front with a solo home run in the seventh, but Fairfield countered with back-to-back home runs in the eighth to take a 7-6 lead.

Graduate student Zach Silfies came on in relief and worked a clean top of the ninth, setting up one final chance for the Broncs.

Sophomore Nick Shuhet reached on an error and advanced to second on a wild pitch, and junior Will Gallagher followed with a walk to put two on for Magoulick.

Down 2-2 in the count, Charley Magoulick delivered — blasting a walk-off homer over the right field wall to send Rider into the postseason on a high note.

The Broncs will be back in action at the MAAC tournament on May 22 in Pomona, New York.