LOUDONVILLE, NY – Siena Baseball seeks to finish on a high note when the Saints conclude their 2023 season with a four-game homestand this week at Connors Park. Siena hosts Fairleigh Dickinson in their non-conference finale Tuesday, before wrapping up with a three-game series vs. MAAC foe Quinnipiac Thursday-Saturday.
 
Although Siena (13-38, 7-14) will fall short of its goal of qualifying for next week's MAAC Championships, the Saints have continued to show improvement and perseverance following an unexpected start to 2023. After dropping 24 of their first 26 games to open the season, which encompassed the sudden retirement of the longest tenured head coach in NCAA Division I Baseball history Tony Rossi on Mar. 20, Siena has posted an 11-14 record over its past 25 contests, with six of their 14 defeats over that time coming by two runs or fewer.
 
Under the direction of interim head coach Joe Sheridan, who at 25 is the youngest Division I Baseball head coach nationally, and who replaced the oldest in the 79-year-old Rossi who was in the midst of his 54^th season at the helm, the Saints have been propelled by an offensive insurgence.
 
After averaging just 2.4 runs while hitting only .175 and scoring no more than six runs in a game over their first 23 contests, Siena has averaged 7.2 runs while hitting .301 and scoring in double figures on eight occasions over their past 28 games.
 
The offensive success has been predicated by the long ball, of which the Saints have smashed 41 over their past 33 contests, after having registered just four total over their first 18 games. Siena enters the week having now totaled 45 home runs this spring – the fifth-highest single-season total in program history – and most in a season since belting a program-record 63 round-trippers in 2010. Although the firepower has been spread out, Vincent DiNicola hit his team-leading 10^th home run on Saturday at Mount St. Mary's, marking the first Saints slugger in five years to reach double digit dingers since Joe Drpich blasted 13 in 2018.  
 
The Siena offense began to turn the corner starting with the first matchup at Fairleigh Dickinson, a tough 12-10 slugfest setback on Mar. 29 in Teaneck, New Jersey. After having been shutout four times in their previous seven games, the Saints eclipsed double figures in runs scored for the first time all season. Siena hit three home runs in the game, highlighted by a grand slam from freshman Aiden Stewart.
 
Youth has been at the center of the Saints recent offensive success, with Stewart leading the charge along with classmates Danny Barbero, Nick Bergamotto, and Gavin Thorburn. Siena has seen three different freshmen in Stewart (twice), Barbero, and weekend starter Ryan Bates all claim MAAC Rookie of the Week honors so far this spring. Stewart also earned MAAC Player of the Week honors to go along with his rookie acclaim on Apr. 25, becoming the conference's first freshman in four years – and the first player in program history – to capture both MAAC Player and Rookie of the Week honors in the same week since Nick Cimillo of Manhattan on Mar. 5, 2019. Meanwhile, Barbero has driven in 19 of his team-high 37 RBI – the third highest total by a freshman in program history – over just his past nine games, while Bergamotto has reached base safely in a team-high 10 straight games, and Thorburn ranks second on the squad hitting .366 in MAAC action.
 
Fairleigh Dickinson (30-18-1, 20-10) comes to Connors Park a bonafide contender in the Northeast Conference. Siena and FDU are completing the second straight year of a home-and-home, after meeting last season for the first time in five years. The programs have split 12 all-time meetings.
 
Upstart Quinnipiac (24-24, 13-8), who was predicted to finish seventh according to the MAAC Preseason Coaches' Poll, has won six of its last seven league contests to vault into fourth place in the MAAC Standings and sit on the precipice of a tournament berth. The Bobcats have been paced by a potent offense of their own, which has averaged a whopping 17 runs while scoring in double figures in each game during their current five-game winning streak entering this week. Siena holds a 15-11 all-time edge in the series against Quinnipiac. The programs did not meet last season as part of the MAAC's double-bye format.
 
Just prior to Saturday's season finale at noon, the Saints will honor seven seniors in a special pregame ceremony beginning at 11:35 a.m. Fifth-years Vincenzo Castronovo and Arlo Marynczak, true seniors Kyle Lev, Matt Livingston, Donovan Montgomery, and Bryce Mordecki, and fourth-year DiNicola will all be honored.
 
All four home games this week will be broadcast on ESPN+.