May 15, 2010
Final Stats
Photo Gallery
Siena routed Fairfield 15-8 on Saturday in an emotional home finale in which they recognized their six member senior class and honored Tyler DeMarco who passed away in February of brain cancer at the age of 12. The Saints improve to 26-25 on the season, the first time they have been over the .500 mark since starting the year with a win at Stetson.
Siena also moved to 12-9 in the MAAC with their sixth consecutive league win. They play their final three conference games of the season Thursday and Friday at Manhattan, likely needing to take the series to earn a spot in the four-team MAAC Championships May 27-29.
The Saints started Saturday's game with fireworks. Anthony Giansanti led off with a homer and after Mike Fish singled sharply to center, Dan Paolini and Kevin Quaranto followed with back-to-back blasts to put Siena up 4-0 before an out was recorded.
It was Paolini's nation-leading 25th home run of the season, 10 more than the previous school-mark of 15 set by Steve Borg 25 years ago. Paolini also set the school's single season RBI (61) and runs (57) record in the weekend sweep.
Quaranto pushed his hit streak to 20 with the first inning home run. He leads the team with a .308 batting average. It was his 80th hit of the season, six shy of Paolini's school record of 86 set last season.
The Saints scored five times in the second and once in the third to take a commanding 10-0 lead before Fairfield scored seven straight times to get back in the game. Siena used a five-run seventh to put the game well out of reach.
Giansanti, Poalini and Larry Balkwill each finished with three hits and three RBI in the win. Fish polished off a strong weekend with two hits and three runs scored.
Siena starter Justin Brantley pitched into the eighth and was effective. Pitching with a large lead for most of the afternoon, he scattered 10 hits and eight runs in 7.2 innings of work while striking out seven and not walking a batter.
David Dudish and Tucker Nathans each homered and drove in three RBI for fast-falling Fairfield.
It was the final home game of the season for Siena. Their contest with NJIT initially rescheduled for Tuesday was cancelled today.
