FAIRFIELD, Conn. (April 25, 2023) – Zack Kovalchik's (Archbald, Pa.) left hand was six inches from home plate. The Sacred Heart University baseball team was six inches from completing a much-needed ninth-inning comeback. Alas, the catcher's glove, and the ball inside it, was already planted on the middle of his back. The potential tying run was cut down at the plate to end the game on a brisk Tuesday afternoon at Alumni Diamond, as Fairfield escaped with a 4-3 victory in the cross-town, non-conference rivalry.
Already losers of five in a row, Sacred Heart (16-22) trailed by a pair going to the top of the eighth, but got one back when Ryan Donnelly (Fairfield, Conn.) cracked a line-drive solo shot over the fence in right for his third home run of the season. The Pios were still chasing a run heading to the ninth inning, and made one last-ditch effort to tie the game. With one out, Kovalchik hit a routine ground ball to second base, but Mike Becchetti spiked the throw to first base, which allowed the SHU right fielder to reach safely.
Two batters later, and now with two outs, Kovalchik stole second base, which set up the game's climactic finish. Justin Jordan (Darien, Conn.) took strike one and then swung through strike two, before taking three straight balls to work the count full. The payoff pitch came home, and Jordan went the other with it, for a single through the left side of the infield.
Kovalchik steamed towards third as the ball skittered its way into shallow left field. With two outs and his team desperately in need of a positive turn of events, head coach Pat Egan had no choice but to wave the runner home from the third-base coach's box. Kovalchik hit third and turned for home moments before the charging left fielder, Griffin Watson, fielded the base hit. Kovalchik chugged towards the plate as Watson came up firing.
With the throw zipping up the inside of the baseline, Kovalchik made a headfirst slide to the outside, stabbing his left hand towards the plate as he tried to evade the clutches of the Fairfield catcher, Ethan Hibbard. Unfortunately for the Pios, Hibbard collected the throw cleanly and put his tag to the back of Kovalchik a split-second before the latter's hand could reach paydirt. Home plate umpire Matt Fame punched at the air to signal the final out as the Stags came spilling out of the first-base dugout in celebration.
Earlier in the day, Sacred Heart had staked out a 2-0 lead through three innings. Both runs came courtesy of solo home runs from Sam Mongelli (Marlboro, N.Y.), who went deep to left in both the first and third innings. Mongelli now has a dozen home runs on the season, which leaves him one away from tying the program's Division I single-season record. The SHU all-time single-season record is 19, set in 1981 by Bill Packer, who led all of Division II that season.
Fairfield (24-14) got a run back in the fourth and struck for the lead with three in the fifth. A walk and a hit batter set the stage for Dean Ferrara, who clubbed a three-run home run to left-center, his first of the campaign.
Right-hander Jake McDowell (Brookfield, Conn.) threw four innings of one-hit ball, allowed an unearned run, walked one and struck out one to start things off on the mound for SHU. Right-hander Cooper Thompson (Clinton, Conn.) was charged with three runs on one hit, walked one and hit a batter in the fifth inning to suffer the loss (0-3).
Right-hander Kevin Kell (1-1) threw scoreless, two-hit ball across the fourth and fifth innings to win for Fairfield. Left-hander Bowen Baker allowed one run on one hit over the final two innings and finished off his second save of the season when Watson cut down the tying run at the plate to end the game.
The two teams have postponed the return trip to Veteran's Park by a week, to May 3. The change was necessitated as the Pios' weekend Northeast Conference series will now start a day earlier than planned. Due to wet weather of the weekend, SHU is now scheduled to play at Coppin State on Thursday through Saturday.
