By DOMINIC KEARNS

STAFF WRITER

Fordham began the week in dire need of momentum after suffering a rough start to A-10 play. In away games against Manhattan College and Georgia State, however, the Rams could not put solid pitching and hitting together.

After a scheduled April 2 contest with Albany was cancelled, the Rams began the week against their cross-Bronx rival the Manhattan Jaspers. Manhattan wasted no time against Fordham freshman Cody Johnson with three first-inning runs. Andrew Gorecki provided the big hit with his two-out, two-run homer, and Johnson left after two innings. Fordham remained scoreless until the fourth frame, when freshman Joseph Runco plated a run with his RBI groundout. In the bottom half, the Jaspers used two doubles to score another run, and their lead stood at 4-1. The sixth inning again saw the teams trade runs, as freshman Ryan McNally’s sacrifice fly was nullified by a two-out Manhattan RBI single.

Fordham gamely fought back in the final three innings, but the Jaspers held on for a 5-4 victory. Freshman Joseph DeVito made it 5-3 in the seventh with a two-out home run and Runco’s eighth inning single brought the Rams within one, but Fordham missed its final opportunity to complete the rally. The Rams had runners on first and second with one out in the ninth, but junior Tim Swatek’s strikeout and sophomore Matt Cianci’s fly ball ended the game.

“Losing to anyone isn’t fun, but losing to the program that I had left hurts even more,” Fordham manager Kevin Leighton said. “I wanted to win that one in the worst way and I am looking forward to beating them when they come down to us at the end of the month.”

Fordham then traveled down to Atlanta for a four-game weekend set with the Georgia State Panthers with hopes of containing the Panthers’ high-powered offense.

In the series opener, Fordham enjoyed an offensive outburst in the Georgia sun. After the Panthers scored two against senior Joseph Charest in the first, Fordham erupted for five second-inning runs. Fordham had seven runners reach base thanks to four hits and three Georgia State errors, and freshman Charles Galiano highlighted the onslaught with his two-RBI single. The Panthers then tied the score with three runs in the bottom half, courtesy of two doubles, a single and two RBI groundouts. The Rams inched ahead 6-5 in the fourth when freshman Ian Edmiston blasted a homer into leftfield, and the first baseman drove two more runners in with his double in the fifth inning.

Leighton left Charest in for the fifth inning, and the Panthers feasted on his pitching for seven runs. After Runco committed an error to allow the leadoff hitter on base, Georgia State quickly scored twice on a double and two singles. Charest then recovered to retire two straight hitters, and it appeared that Fordham may escape the inning with an 8-7 edge. With two strikes against Chase Raffield, Charest hit the batter to load the bases, and the Panthers proceeded to score five more times courtesy of two two-run singles and freshman Brett Kennedy’s wild pitch. By the time Kennedy came in to relieve Charest, the lead had been relinquished.

Senior Rich Anastasi gave the Rams three innings of sterling relief, but Fordham could only muster one run in its final four at bats en route to a 12-9 loss.

The Rams started junior Chris Pike in the opener of a Saturday doubleheader, but he failed to control Georgia State’s bats in a 9-3 defeat. The Panthers scored twice in the first inning on the strength of three consecutive hits, and their lead could have been greater had they not left the bases loaded in the second. Fordham scored once in the third inning when DeVito led off with a double and scored on a sacrifice fly. In the fourth, Georgia State added two more runs on two hits, a Fordham error and a Pike wild pitch. The fifth inning brought more of the same, as Pike received the hook after surrendering a leadoff triple and two more runs. With a 6-1 lead, Georgia State finally enjoyed a comfortable lead.

Fordham tried to rally with two sixth inning runs, but the Panthers responded with two more in the bottom half. A Nic Wilson seventh-inning homer was the cherry on top of Georgia State’s 9-3 win, and the teams prepared for the second half of their doubleheader.

The teams played a seven-inning game in the nightcap, and Fordham gave a strong team effort in defeat. Freshman Jimmy Murphy gave a strong effort in his first collegiate start, but the Panthers scored two key second inning runs on a two-out single from Matt Rose. Fordham responded with two third-inning runs. Senior Mike Mauri delivered a two-out single, and Galiano scored while Mauri was caught in a rundown. Senior Dan Sorine led the fourth frame off with a home run, and Fordham had its first lead of the day. Murphy stopped the Panther attack through the fifth inning, and Fordham needed just six more outs to score a win.

Despite the fact the Murphy only threw 81 pitches in his five innings, junior Tim Swatek entered the game in the sixth inning. After retiring the first hitter, Swatek ran into trouble. The Panthers strung together five consecutive singles and scored three runs for a 5-3 lead. Georgia State reliever Ben Burns struck out the side to end it, and Fordham fell to 1-11 in its last 12 games.

“Murph threw very well for us and he did what we needed him to do,” Leighton said. “He hasn’t thrown that deep into a game yet this spring. He could have gone back out there, but we felt that Swatek could shut the door.”

Fordham looked to salvage the final game of its lengthy road trip, but the Rams fell again in Atlanta. The Panthers broke the deadlock in the second inning with two runs off Brett Kennedy. The score stayed 2-0 until Fordham equalized in the sixth inning. After the first two hitters reached on singles, Runco bunted the ball with the intent to sacrifice the runners to second and third. The Panthers committed a throwing error, however, which allowed both runners to score. Georgia State then scored two in the bottom of the inning, and knocked Kennedy out of the game. After Kennedy hit two batters to load the bases with two outs, Anastasi came in to stem the tide. Shane Gordon defeated Anastasi, though, with his tiebreaking two-run single. Georgia State scored an insurance run in the eighth inning, and Fordham’s offense stalled in its 5-2 loss.

“Baseball is funny like that,” Leighton said. “One week you pitch and don’t hit, and the next week you hit and don’t pitch. I don’t like to make excuses, but our youth shows and we have to improve.”

Fordham now stands at 11-19 overall, and the Rams will host Rhode Island in a pivotal weekend series. The first game will be on Friday, April 12 at 7 p.m.