LOUDONVILLE, NY – Siena Baseball finished out its 2024 home campaign on Tuesday with a 14-5 defeat to New Jersey neighbor and hot-streaking Fairleigh Dickinson in nonconference action at Connors Park.
 
The Saints (10-39) closed out the season with a 7-11 home record.
 
Siena did jump on the scoreboard first when sophomore Danny Barbero drove home freshman Tyler Figueroa with an RBI double to left field in the bottom of the first inning after Saints starting pitching Ritchie Paltridge worked around a walk to get through a scoreless first. 
 
But, the tenor of the game changed dramatically from there as the Knights (23-27) took advantage of a pair of fielding errors and a double to right field by graduate student Brian Sanders help plate four runs in the second inning.
 
FDU did not look back after that, tacking on six more runs before Siena countered with three runs in the bottom half of the sixth inning when five consecutive Saints reached base.  
 
With one out, Randall Hein singled, Nick Bergamotto, Figueroa and Barbero all doubled and Austin Rachiele worked out a walk to get three runs back. 
 
But back-to-back strikeouts halted the rally there and made it 10-4 in favor of FDU. 
 
FDU stayed hot by winning for the eighth straight time in the month of May after pulling a sweep at Norfolk State, a nonconference win at St. John's and another sweep at NEC foe Coppin State. 
 
At the plate, the Saints left seven runners on base and committed five errors in the field. 
 
On the mound, Siena used seven pitchers, but only six of the 14 runs allowed were earned.
 
The Knights also used seven pitchers in a designated "bullpen game" by both teams. 
 
Next, Siena is scheduled to play a three-game set to finish out the regular season beginning on Thursday at Iona (11-36, 5-16 MAAC) at 6 p.m.