LOUDONVILLE, NY – Siena Baseball looks to put a stamp on an impressive regular season – and build momentum heading into the program's first postseason appearance in four years – when the Saints wrap things up against I-87 rival Marist this weekend at Connors Park.
A decisive regular-season ending series for both teams features Thursday and Friday contests set for 3:30 p.m., before wrapping up with Senior Day Saturday at 1 p.m. The Saints will honor the team's 12 seniors in a special pregame ceremony Saturday at 12:45 p.m. All three games this weekend will be broadcast on ESPN+.
Siena (21-28, 16-11) heads into the final weekend of regular season action seeking to put an exclamation point on what has been a program rebirth this spring. Projected to finish 11
th out of 13 teams according to the MAAC Preseason Coaches' Poll, the Saints secured the program's first MAAC Tournament berth in four years over the weekend.
Siena enters the final pivotal series tied for third in the MAAC Standings with Quinnipiac, whom the Saints claimed the head-to-head tiebreaker over after taking two of three from the Bobcats this past weekend. Siena can still be seeded anywhere from 3-6 in next week's eight-team MAAC Championships, which are set to be contested May 20-24 at Clover Stadium in Pomona, New York. The top-four seeds secure byes to the double elimination rounds.
The Saints 21 victories so far this spring match the 2018 squad for the program's most in nine years (25 wins in 2016), and 16 MAAC wins equal the 2016 team for the highest total since the 2014 MAAC Championship winning squad posted 17 league victories. Moreover, Siena enters the weekend having won six straight MAAC series, the program's longest such streak since claiming nine in a row from April 2016 to April 2017.
The Saints season turned on a dime beginning with a March 26 win at FDU. Through March 25, Siena was just 4-17 overall while hitting a collective .230 and averaging only 3.7 runs per game. Since the victory over the Knights, the offense has been on an absolute tear in propelling the Saints to a 17-11 record. Over that time, Siena has accrued a stellar .312 team batting average while scoring 7.9 runs.
The offense has been paced by newcomers
Aidan Paradine and
Jake Sparks. Paradine, who has hit a team-high .419 with all seven of his home runs during the aforementioned 28-game stretch, ranks second overall this season in the MAAC in on-base percentage (.486), third in hitting (.371), and ninth in OPS (1.045). Meanwhile Sparks, who enters the weekend riding an 18-game hitting streak, is tied for second in the MAAC with 13 home runs while pacing the Saints with 47 RBI.
On the mound, staff ace
Alistair Morin has pitched Siena to an 8-1 record in MAAC series openers. He enters the weekend second in the conference in strikeouts (72), fifth in ERA (3.75), and seventh in opposing batting average (.239). Converted closer
Tyler Sausville ranks second in the MAAC with five saves – all of which have come in conference action – while leading all qualifying Saints hurlers with a 3.90 ERA in MAAC play.
Predicted to finish eighth according to the MAAC Preseason Coaches' Poll, Marist (21-25, 12-13) has dropped six of its last nine conference contests to put its postseason aspirations in jeopardy. The Red Foxes enter the weekend in seventh place in the MAAC Standings, a half-game up on Manhattan and two games clear of defending MAAC Tournament Champion Niagara, who is currently the first team on the outside looking in.
Marist holds a 45-40 all-time edge in a series which began back in 1994. The Red Foxes have claimed the all-time series lead by capturing 12 of the past 16 meetings since the start of the 2019 season. Each of the past nine matchups between the I-87 rivals have been played in the Capital Region, after the previous seven were contested in Poughkeepsie.
