Category: Fordham Ram Writing

This article originally appeared in The Fordham Ram in September 2019.

Fordham’s men’s and women’s cross country teams took part in the Paddy Doyle Invitational this past week at Van Cortlandt Park right here in the Bronx. The men’s team earned a fifth-place finish while the women finished the event in seventh place out of 16 teams.

Fordham senior and defending Atlantic 10 champion Ryan Kutch made his first appearance of the season and completed the 8K course in a time of just over 25 minutes, which left him just outside the top ten in the event. After Kutch crossed the line, sophomore Brandon Hall followed close behind in a 17th-place time of 25:32.3. Senior Nicholas Raefski also earned a top-30 finish with his 26th-place time of 25:53.7.

Fordham also had five other competitors in the event. In addition to Kutch, Hall and Raefski, other Fordham finishers included freshman John McGovern (33rd–26:01), freshman Colin Flood (41st–26:12.5), senior Sean Sullivan (58th–27:07.0), freshman Jack Craven (27:15.2) and first-year runner Nick Lundberg (79th–27:25.2). The men’s team was able to earn a top-five finish, as the Rams came in behind Iona, Charlotte, Temple and Columbia.

The women’s team had a similar performance on Friday.

The Rams were led by freshman Alexandra Thomas, who had an extremely impressive showing in the 5K race. Thomas was the first Fordham woman to cross the finish line, and she did so in a 16th-place time of 18:32.6. In her first competition since the Stony Brook Season Opener on Aug. 31, senior Sydney Snow crossed the finish line in 19:11.2, which was good for a 42nd-place showing. Fordham was able to get two freshmen in the top 50 on this morning, as Taylor Mascetta joined Thomas in placing 49th with a time of 19:29.4.

There were several other competitors for the Rams on the women’s side. Other scorers included sophomore Bridget Alex (19:35.3), freshmen Sarah Rubenheimer (20:11.1) and juniors Dana Baggins (20:33.4) and Maeve O’Connor (21:49.5).

In the team competition, the Fordham women finished seventh out of 16 teams, finishing behind Columbia, Cornell, La Salle, Johns Hopkins, Temple and Charlotte.

The Paddy Doyle Invitational concluded a stretch of four competitions in four weeks for Fordham Cross Country. The Rams will take next weekend off before resuming their season on Oct. 5 at the Paul Short Invitational in Bethlehem, Pa. That tournament will be hosted by Lehigh and will mark the first tournament Fordham competes in outside the tri-state area this season.

This article originally appeared in The Fordham Ram in September 2019.

Both the Fordham men’s and women’s cross country teams competed at this weekend’s NYIT Invitational, hosted by the New York Institute of Technology, in Old Westbury, N.Y. The men’s team raked in a second-place finish, trailing only Seton Hall, while the women finished fourth behind Seton Hall, St. Thomas Aquinas and USMMA.

On the men’s side, the team was led by junior William Whelan, who finished seventh in the 8K race with a time of 23:34.26. Fordham finished in each position seventh through tenth, as three of Whelan’s teammates — freshman Ryan Fahey (23:52.48), junior Patrick Norako (23:52.78) and junior Dylan Serino (23:56.72) — rounded out the top 10. Also competing for the Rams was sophomore Patrick Tuohy, who finished the race in a time of 24:17.75, good for 17th place in the event.

“As a runner for over seven years, it always feels great when your summer training starts to pay off,” Whelan says. “I knew going into the NYIT Invitational I was one of the fastest runners, and I could score low for Fordham. Placing seventh, eighth, ninth and tenth is a great sign, but the competitiveness in me thinks we could have been lower.”

Moving over to the women’s team, sophomore Bridget Alex had her second straight solid performance, crossing the finish line before of any other female Ram in 20:09.85. Junior Bridget White placed 19th in 21:29.06 while sophomores Jill Jones and Angelica Piccini finished 27th and 28th, respectively, with times of just over 22 minutes. Junior Julia Herms also placed for Fordham, crossing the finish line in a time of 22:18.65.

This was the second event of the regular season for the Rams, after last week’s Fordham Fiasco, in which both the men’s and women’s teams came in fifth place. Fordham will have a return home of sorts this coming week, as the Rams will compete in the Paddy Doyle Invitational this coming Friday; however, Fordham will not be hosting. Instead, Iona College will be hosting the event, even though it will be held here in the Bronx, at Van Cortlandt Park.

“We are a strong group of athletes, and starting this cross-country season, we have been holding each other more accountable for small things like stretching, core and other important priorities that may be overlooked,” Whelan says. “With that being said, running more tight as a pack during workouts may give us very similar feel to when it comes time to race, and when the time comes to race, we will used to seeing, pacing and running next to each other, whether ahead or behind, and start to pick off other runners.”

Fordham will look forward to doing that this Friday.

This article originally appeared in The Fordham Ram in September 2019.

Evan Jaenichen, FCRH `20, will be leaving Fordham in May with a very different career path than the one he envisioned a couple of years ago.

Jaenichen, originally from Long Island, wasn’t exactly sure what he wanted to do entering college. He initially wanted to become a physician’s assistant or physical therapist.

He planned on joining the pre-med program but decided against it because he knew he ultimately wouldn’t be interested.
“I had worked with a physical therapist that summer, and while I enjoyed it at times, it was not something I could have seen myself pursuing,” Jaenichen says.

So, in his sophomore year, Jaenichen was back at square one. In February 2018, he chose new media and digital design as his major, but he still didn’t know what he wanted to do or where he wanted to go with said major.

He took a philosophical ethics class his senior year and happened to meet Charlie Maisano, FCRH `20, who is currently the sports manager at WFUV.

The two became friends, and Jaenichen wandered into a new passion in just about the last way you could imagine: watching a Mets game on his laptop. “Charlie and I talked, and eventually he told me about all of the cool stuff WFUV students get to do, which I never really knew about. So I basically said, ‘What the hell!’ and signed up for the trainee program the following semester, since it sort of pertained to my major and I love sports.”
Armed with this knowledge and sudden change of direction, Jaenichen got to work, involving himself in podcasts, beat reporting and production at the station.

Soon, he became a WFUV beat reporter for NYCFC, one of two local Major League Soccer teams. He also got involved in video training at the station and, due to his proficiency in that medium, was named WFUV Sports’ video coordinator this past April.

In the span of less than a year, he went from questioning his future to creating it.

“I would have to say that the most rewarding part of working there is the process of completing a daunting project, and then getting to see the final product,” he says. “The station has made me more of a perfectionist, and in many rights, I attribute that to both Charlie and Bob [Ahrens, WFUV Sports’ executive producer.] I’m sure most students would say the same about working on any project with Bob Ahrens however, the end product is very rewarding. And you get to learn so much!”

One of those daunting projects was a July trip to Cooperstown, N.Y., where he got to witness the Baseball Hall of Fame induction of former Yankees closer Mariano Rivera, the first unanimous inductee in the Hall’s history. His latest undertaking is videography for Fordham Football, posting highlights of the game along with WFUV’s radio calls.

Jaenichen is having a good time with what he is doing right now, but in eight months, he’ll be launched into the real world with the rest of the class of 2020. No matter how accomplished your college career is, graduating is bound to come with anxiety and concern. Nonetheless, Jaenichen has a far better idea of what he wants to do than he did just over a year ago.

“After graduation, I would love to work in sports in pretty much any capacity,” he says. “One thing that I have really found a passion for is video production, especially special projects that involve a degree of thinking and foresight. In that respect, it would be really cool to work somewhere that I can be creative with video production, or even just be involved in live production, as it is also a kind of art in its own right.”

No matter what he does, the senior just wants to have fun and be happy. “Overall, I am just looking for something I can find enjoyment out of,” Jaenichen says.

Jaenichen has found his direction and his passion. He has come a long way from watching the Mets in philosophical ethics.

This article originally appeared in The Fordham Ram in September 2019.

It is no secret that in sports, most coaches and managers would rather follow the herd.

In basketball, teams trudged their way through 84–82 games until a coach like Don Nelson pioneered a run-and-gun offense with the Warriors and Mavericks in the 90s and 2000s. Baseball managers refused to acknowledge advanced analytics until those same numbers spearheaded teams like the Rays and A’s to success in the mid-to-late-2000s.

Football has not yet seen that evolution, and the game could use a Billy Beane, Joe Maddon or Don Nelson.

What I’m referring to is the archaic in-game management of the vast majority of coaches at the professional level. Here’s an example that comes by way of new Cardinals coach Kliff Kingsbury, who was hailed for his advanced offensive tactics and avant-garde attitudes towards an evolving game when he was hired in January. None of this actually mattered because, more importantly, Kingsbury was friends with 33-year-old Rams coach Sean McVay, who all NFL teams with a coaching vacancy were trying to clone last offseason.

That makes what happened in Sunday’s Cardinals-Ravens game all the more bizarre.

The game turned into a competitive battle between two of the game’s most promising young quarterbacks, Arizona’s Kyler Murray and Baltimore’s Lamar Jackson. While Jackson slightly outdueled Murray, Arizona had plenty of chances to steal a win and move to 1-0-1 against the defending AFC North champions.

Instead, Kingsbury swallowed those chances. Cardinals kicker Zane Gonzalez kicked three field goals with his team inside the five-yard-line, and two of those field goals came with two or fewer yards needed to get a first down. Kingsbury also punted on his own 44-yard-line with a fourth-and-one early in the first half instead of going for it. In summation, Kingsbury cost his team an opportunity at 15 points. The Cardinals lost by just six. Kingsbury’s offense, which is not one of the more explosive ones in the league, has averaged 5.4 yards per play in its first two games, meaning it could likely muster the necessary yardage to convert in those situations in which he chose to punt and kick field goals.

According to Stats LLC, the Cardinals’ inept decision-making on Sunday was also historic; Arizona became the first team in over 30 years to kick three field goals inside the five-yard-line while losing. Kingsbury was hired to be an advanced thinker, but his thinking was just the opposite on Sunday, and it may well have cost his team a victory.

Let’s look at the other end of the spectrum and examine what happens when coaches play to win instead of not to lose.

Eagles coach Doug Pederson has burnished a reputation as being one of the most aggressive fourth-down coaches in the league. His team has been among the top two in the league each of his three full years as Philadelphia’s head coach, and he once again played smartly and aggressively against the Falcons on Sunday night. His offense was faced with a fourth-and-goal from four yards outside the goal line in the third quarter, but instead of ending a third-straight trip to the red zone with a disappointing field goal, Pederson went for it. His quarterback, Carson Wentz, found wide receiver Nelson Agholor in the back of the end zone for six points instead of three. The play increased the Eagles’ win probability by 8.9%, while a field goal would not have had the same effect.

While the Eagles eventually lost the game, they didn’t play not to lose. Pederson stuck to his guns, and, despite the team’s ultimate failure, its head coach won’t have too many decision-making regrets about how the game transpired.

The flock of NFL coaches says that you should avoid risks like the one Pederson took on Sunday unless they are absolutely necessary. Many in the coaching community, which has progressed on this issue in the last few years, would likely side with Kingsbury’s logic in taking the sure points.

This also points to another issue with the hiring and firing practices of NFL teams, particularly when it comes to their head coaches. While risk is not necessarily always rewarded, it should be at least respected when it comes to game strategy and hiring a new head coach. Kingsbury was thought of as a “risk-taker,” which is a notion he quickly disproved in week two. He never earned this reputation; rather, it arose from who he knew and other characteristics like his age (39) and background, which included coaching future NFL quarterbacks like Davis Webb and Patrick Mahomes at Texas Tech.

So when you watch the next slate of NFL games, whether it’s this coming week or in the future, look at the decisions certain coaches are making. Then, remember this: while they may think they are, not all of the league’s 32 head honchos are coaching to win.

This article originally appeared in The Fordham Ram in September 2019.

Both the Fordham men’s and women’s cross country teams competed at this weekend’s NYIT Invitational, hosted by the New York Institute of Technology, in Old Westbury, N.Y. The men’s team raked in a second-place finish, trailing only Seton Hall, while the women finished fourth behind Seton Hall, St. Thomas Aquinas and USMMA.

On the men’s side, the team was led by junior William Whelan, who finished seventh in the 8K race with a time of 23:34.26. Fordham finished in each position seventh through tenth, as three of Whelan’s teammates — freshman Ryan Fahey (23:52.48), junior Patrick Norako (23:52.78) and junior Dylan Serino (23:56.72) — rounded out the top 10. Also competing for the Rams was sophomore Patrick Tuohy, who finished the race in a time of 24:17.75, good for 17th place in the event.

“As a runner for over seven years, it always feels great when your summer training starts to pay off,” Whelan says. “I knew going into the NYIT Invitational I was one of the fastest runners, and I could score low for Fordham. Placing seventh, eighth, ninth and tenth is a great sign, but the competitiveness in me thinks we could have been lower.”

Moving over to the women’s team, sophomore Bridget Alex had her second straight solid performance, crossing the finish line before of any other female Ram in 20:09.85. Junior Bridget White placed 19th in 21:29.06 while sophomores Jill Jones and Angelica Piccini finished 27th and 28th, respectively, with times of just over 22 minutes. Junior Julia Herms also placed for Fordham, crossing the finish line in a time of 22:18.65.

This was the second event of the regular season for the Rams, after last week’s Fordham Fiasco, in which both the men’s and women’s teams came in fifth place. Fordham will have a return home of sorts this coming week, as the Rams will compete in the Paddy Doyle Invitational this coming Friday; however, Fordham will not be hosting. Instead, Iona College will be hosting the event, even though it will be held here in the Bronx, at Van Cortlandt Park.

“We are a strong group of athletes, and starting this cross-country season, we have been holding each other more accountable for small things like stretching, core and other important priorities that may be overlooked,” Whelan says. “With that being said, running more tight as a pack during workouts may give us very similar feel to when it comes time to race, and when the time comes to race, we will used to seeing, pacing and running next to each other, whether ahead or behind, and start to pick off other runners.”

Fordham will look forward to doing that this Friday.

This article originally appeared in The Fordham Ram in August 2019.

The 2018 season was a historic one for the Fordham cross country team.

The year saw several historic performances, led by then-junior Ryan Kutch and senior Angelina Grebe. Kutch became the first Ram runner ever to win the Atlantic 10 championship in October while both Kutch and Grebe made it to the all-Atlantic 10 team at season’s end. Additionally, the women’s cross country team finished with a program-best third-place finish at the Atlantic 10 championship.

However, 2019 is a new season, and with it have come some significant changes.

The biggest difference between 2018 and 2019 for the Rams is at coach, as Tom Dewey retired over the summer after 39 years at the helm of the program. Stepping into his place is former assistant coach and recruiting coordinator Brian Horowitz, who had been one of Dewey’s assistants since 2013. The move is an adjustment for the Rams, but the team’s familiarity with Horowitz should ease the transition.

“It is going to be a big adjustment just because of what coach Dewey brought to the team with his experience, knowledge and coaching ability,” Kutch says. “However, coach Horowitz has done a great job as an assistant and the whole team is confident he will do equally as well as a head coach.”
Kutch is returning for his senior year having reached the pinnacle of achievement last season. That being said, he and his coach are still focused on improvement despite all of his achievements last year.

“Ryan has been very consistent over the past three years,” Horowitz says. “His consistency has led to continuous progression in performances each year. We hope to continue to take the next step and have Ryan compete against the other top distance runners in the country.”

Kutch will lead the men’s team with other solid returners, including sophomore Brandon Hall and senior Sean Sullivan. On the women’s side, the team will be led by seniors Katia Krzyzanowski and Sydney Snow, both of whom will be captains for the coming season. The former has a strong 17th-place showing at last year’s Atlantic 10 Tournament while Snow anchored the team’s ECAC champion 4×800 team.

The team will also get reinforcements in newcomers like John McGovern, Colin Flood and Nick Lundberg, all three of whom finished in the top 11 in the New Jersey Meet of Champions last year. On the women’s side, freshman standouts include Alexandra Thomas, Taylor Mascetta and Sarah Rubenheimer. Thomas and Mascetta both placed in the top six at various events in their respective state meets this past season.

“The conference is very tough and deep in the team competition,” Horowitz says. “But we see ourselves as a threat and look to compete along with the other top teams in the conference.”

The conference should be deep and competitive this year. So should these Rams.

This article originally appeared in The Fordham Ram in August 2019.

The 2018-19 season saw several scintillating achievements for Fordham’s swimming and diving team.

On the women’s side, the team pulled in a third-place finish at the Atlantic 10 Championship in February in Geneva, Ohio. Multiple school records were broken, including the 50, 100 and 200 freestyle. The star of the swim team was senior Tara Brunner, who had a hand in breaking three of those Fordham swimming records. However, Fordham’s top performers last season weren’t necessarily upperclassmen.

Sophomore Caitlin McNary made first-team Atlantic 10 with her performance in the 500 freestyle, and she returns for her junior year this season. Then-junior Theresa Mullen returns after being a part of three all-Atlantic 10 relays.

Over on the diving side, the return of one standout performer should give the team hope for another excellent season.

Current senior Molly Dunn competed at the NCAA Zone Diving Competition on March 12 in Annapolis, Md. Dunn qualified for this tournament after a fourth-place finish in the one-meter dive at the conference championship the month before. The North Attleboro, Mass. native will look to add to her already-impressive resume in 2019-20.

On the men’s side, the team will look to rebound from an up-and-down campaign. Freshman recruits such as Nicholas Chao, Evan Fenska, Wade Meaders, Luka Mikadze, Ethan Murray, Nicolas Trichery and Kavin Weerasinghe will look to invigorate the program with new life and improved results. The team stands to improve after finishing last out of eight teams at February’s Atlantic 10 Championships. However, not all was lost last season; the team showed its potential by surging to blowout victories over Fairfield and Manhattan, which were followed by a close victory over local rival Iona.

The men’s team did lose several key pieces to graduation, such as captain Travis Monahan. However, many of the team’s most exciting athletes from last year, including seniors Christopher Sleutjes and Greg Lombana, juniors Scott Stern and Danny McGowan and sophomore A.J. Frakes, among others, are returning for the coming season. That return rate should lead to a marked improvement starting this fall for head coach Steve Potsklan and his team.

Fordham Swimming and Diving saw some great performances last season, particularly on the women’s side. This season, the task will be to match, if not exceed, those historic performances and improve on what was an excellent 2018-19 season.

This team, on both the men’s and women’s sides, has the pieces to get it done.

This article originally appeared in The Fordham Ram in August 2019.

It may have taken longer than anticipated, but Fordham Rowing showed what it was capable of as the 2018–19 season neared its conclusion.
The truest indicator of this performance was a share of a third-place showing at the Atlantic 10 Championships in May. After the regatta was completed, three Rams—­­­seniors Erin Parker and Caroline Roncinske, along with current junior Aleksa Bjornson—were named to the all-Atlantic 10 team.

“We had a rough start to the beginning of the season but we managed to come together and prove to ourselves what we are capable of as a team,” Bjornson said.

In 2019-20, the team will look to rebound after losing Parker and Roncinske, two of its main leaders. Other losses to graduation include Noelle Chaney, Danielle Kosman, Cynthia Luz, Emma Spoldi, Erin Stepka and Sarah White. The team, led by 28th-year head coach Ted Bonanno, will look to offset these losses with a fresh batch of recruits and improvement from athletes on the current roster.

Consistency was another issue for the team last year, and one that the Rams will have to correct if they want to become the class of the Atlantic 10. Bonanno has had experience with nationally-regarded team; according to Fordham Athletics, Bonanno’s crews have won a combined 17 national championships.

“Improving consistency will be our main focus; aiming to start strong and end strong,” Bjornson says. “Having high expectations for ourselves combined with a large incoming class of freshmen recruits will hopefully lead to strong finishes at our fall regattas.”

“In terms of improving, our key element is for all our rowers to continue to develop both technically and physically,” head coach Ted Bonanno said. “Last year more than half our squad did but some key rowers did not, mainly due to injuries. We look forward to keeping everyone healthy and hopefully free from injury.”

In terms of that development from last season, Bonanno cited senior Erika Selakowski, sophomore Lizzie Kerrigan, senior Brikena Prendaj, junior Anna Grace Cole and Elizabeth Berejka as rowers who made significant strides over the course of the season.

“Our goals for this season are lofty,” Bonanno says. After finishing third in the A-10 Conference last season, we are looking to move up and challenge for the championship.”

Fordham had an extremely successful season last year, but the Rams believe they are capable of achieving even more. If they are able to start this season as well as they finished last year, chances are they’ll be right.

This article originally appeared in The Fordham Ram in June 2019.

The awards haven’t stopped pouring in for Fordham Women’s Basketball’s stellar 2018-19 campaign.

Head coach Stephanie Gaitley has been named Coach of the Year by the Basketball Coaches Association of New York (BCANY) after her team won the Atlantic 10 and advanced to the NCAA Tournament. The Rams won 25 games this past season, which included a share of the team’s first-ever Atlantic 10 regular season title with Virginia Commonwealth University; Fordham beat VCU in the Atlantic 10 championship game on March 10.

“I want to thank the BCANY for such a wonderful honor,” Gaitley told Fordham Athletics. “I’m humbled and thankful to be named the BCANY 2019 Coach of the Year. … I’ve always admired their commitment to the young men and women in the sport of basketball.”

In spite of suffering a key loss in G’Mrice Davis, who was a consistent double-double producer for the Rams, Gaitley’s team did not miss a beat last season. Fordham brought back three of its five starters from the previous year – guards Lauren Holden (senior) and Bre Cavanaugh (redshirt sophomore), as well as senior forward Mary Goulding – and was able to rise to the top of a talented Atlantic 10 conference. Gaitley and her staff are known to place a heavy emphasis on tough defense, and that’s what her team did by allowing just over 54 points per game throughout the season. The Rams struggled on that end in out-of-conference play, but steadily improved throughout January and February as the conference slate rolled on.

Gaitley was not the only member of the team to receive recognition for an exceptional season. Cavanaugh was named the BCANY Player of the Year after averaging just over 17 points, six rebounds and two-and-a-half assists on the season. Goulding also got in on the fun, making the BCANY’s second team in which she averaged around 13 points and eight rebounds per game while shooting just shy of 48% from the field. Both players were named to the Atlantic 10’s First Team at the end of the regular season, while Goulding was named the Atlantic 10 tournament’s Most Outstanding Player after averaging nearly 21 points and seven rebounds in the team’s three victories.

Goulding graduated in May and is now playing overseas in Australia with the Rockhampton Cyclones of the Australia State League. Cavanaugh, on the other hand, will be returning to Fordham for her third year with the program next season and will look to add to an impressive two-year resume that includes two all-Atlantic 10 selections, two WNIT victories, an Atlantic 10 championship and an NCAA Tournament appearance.

Fordham will look to repeat in 2018-19 performance starting in November. Gaitley is not taking it easy with the out-of-conference schedule, booking teams like Notre Dame, Georgetown and Villanova, among others, before Atlantic 10 play begins after the new year. The team will have some turnover to overcome; in addition to the graduations of Holden, Goulding and graduate transfer Alexa Giuliano, the staff lost assistant coach Ang Szumilo, who was named the head coach at Fairleigh Dickinson University in late April. To replace Szumilo, the team hired Colgate assistant coach Candice Green to the same position.

Fordham Women’s Basketball will have something of a new look in the fall, but many important pieces will return. With Gaitley and Cavanaugh still in place, there is nothing to suggest that the Rams won’t be able to compete for another conference championship.

If they do, they can win more awards like the ones they acquired this spring.

This article originally appeared in The Fordham Ram in June 2019.

Fordham Baseball’s first NCAA Tournament appearance in 21 years ended almost as quickly as it started.

The Rams dropped their first game by a score of 6-2 to West Virginia University and followed that up with an 11-2 loss to Texas A&M last weekend. Fordham reached the tournament by virtue of winning the Atlantic 10 on its home turf the weekend before. In that tournament, the Rams went undefeated and finished off the championship with two straight victories on back-to-back days over Dayton University. However, they would have no such luck on the national stage.

Fordham’s first game against 15th-seeded West Virginia on Friday started out positively for the underdog Rams. Kevin Leighton’s team struck first on an RBI single by junior Matt Tarabek that plated speedy sophomore Jake MacKenzie from second base. Fordham would hold that lead until the bottom of the third inning, when sophomore hurler and Atlantic 10 Pitcher of the Year John Stankiewicz ran into trouble. A wild pitch, a sacrifice fly by Darius Hill and a bases-loaded walk to Darius Hill put the Mountaineers up 3-1, and they would not relinquish the lead for the rest of the night. West Virginia added insurance on Tyler Doanes’ two-run double in the sixth and Ivan Gonzalez’s RBI double in the seventh. Even though Fordham scratched a run across in the eighth, the Rams were unable to make a serious comeback and fell 6-2 in game one.

With the loss on Friday night, Fordham would be faced with a win-or-go-home matchup against Texas A&M University. Ironically, Fordham played the Aggies in their first series of the year and even though the Rams were swept, the familiarity could have helped them in this setting. Unfortunately for them, it didn’t.

Senior Anthony DiMeglio, in his last start in a Fordham uniform, had major issues in the first inning. The second batter of the game, Aggies second baseman Bryce Blaum, whacked a solo home run to left to kick off the scoring. Things continued to go downhill from there; right fielder Logan Foster hit an RBI single to make it 2-0 and Hunter Coleman’s three-run home run made it 5-0 before the Rams were even able to come to bat. When it was all said and done, DiMeglio conceded seven earned runs in 4.2 innings. Despite run-scoring hits by Tarabek and freshman Jack Harnisch, Fordham was unable to come back and lost 11-2 to end a historic 2019 season.

Despite a tough performance over the weekend, Fordham may be sending multiple players to the pros. Star sophomore closer Kyle Martin was taken by the Baltimore Orioles in the 15th round of the draft by the Baltimore Orioles earlier this week. After the draft, senior pitcher Anthony Zimmerman also received a contract from the Cincinnati Reds. While Zimmerman has already graduated, Martin will have a decision to make: either stay at Fordham for at least another year or take the money and run.

Despite being unable to win a game in the NCAA Tournament, Fordham Baseball will view this season as an unparalleled success. The Rams reached the NCAA Tournament for the first time in this century and did so using a style of play – one that emphasized small-ball, manufacturing runs and causing havoc on the basepaths – that few teams use, or have success with, in this day-and-age of the “three true outcomes.”

So even though the Rams lost, they can always view themselves as winners. After all, this season, that’s exactly what they were.