BRONX, N.Y.—Deon Stafford, Jr. and Charlie Coglin got key ninth-inning hits to rally No. 3 Saint Joseph’s past No. 5 Fordham 7-6 Thursday night in the Atlantic 10 Baseball Championship consolation bracket at Fordham’s Houlihan Park.
The Hawks (30-22) advance to face No.2 VCU at 3:30 pm in Friday’s consolation bracket semifinal, which will air live on ASN. Fordham (29-29), which lost to top-seeded Rhode Island earlier in the day, was eliminated.
Trailing 4-2 entering the ninth, Marc Giacalone set the table for Hawks’ heroics with a single to right center that scored Cal Jadacki and pulled SJU within one. Stafford, the A-10 Player of the Year, then hit a hard single through the left side with the bases loaded, tying the game on a Taylor Boyd run. Coghlin then hit a drifting blooper that landed just inside the right field foul line to give Saint Joseph’s the lead. Charlie Concannon added two insurance runs with a follow-up RBI-single.
Saint Joseph’s had to turn back a Fordham rally in the bottom of the ninth. A Mark Donadio single scored Luke Stampfl. Donadio then scored from third when a third strike got away from the catcher and allowed Ryan Mahoney to reach first. Both runs happened with two outs, and a pop-out in foul territory by third base ended the Rams' surge.
Jack Stover (1-0) got the win for Saint Joseph’s, throwing one and a third inning, allowing two runs on two hits. Brian Lau earned his fourth save getting two ninth-inning strikeouts. Reiss Knehr (2-3) took the loss, surrendering three runs on two hits.
The Hawks got on the board with two first-inning runs. A-10 Player of the Year Deon Stafford Jr. doubled after a leadoff walk by Giacalone. Giacalone came home on Stafford’s hit, before Stafford scored from third on a John Brue double.
But Fordham got one of the runs back in the bottom of the fourth, when Luke Stampfl’s RBI double down the left field line scored Mark Donadio. The Rams then took a 3-2 lead in the bottom of the sixth when a bases-loaded seeing-eye double up the middle by Mahoney scored Donadio and Ryan McNally. A seventh-inning sacrifice fly by Donadio provided a Joey Runco tag-up insurance run.