Baseball Tops Fairfield, 5-3, in Home Opener

Friday, March 15

Providence, R.I.

3:00 PM

Brown University

2-9

Fairfield

2-9

Fairfield

Brown

Baseball Tops Fairfield, 5-3, in Home Opener

3/15/2019 8:10:00 PM | Baseball

Box Score

PROVIDENCE, R.I. – Garett Delano (Callahan, Fla.) and Mark Sluys (Gig Harbor, Wash.) both drove in runs in eighth inning to break a tie game as the Brown baseball team topped Fairfield, 5-3, in Friday's home opener at Attanasio Family Field at Murray Stadium.

Brown (2-9) recorded eight hits to claim the opener of a four-game set. Fairfield dropped to 2-9 overall.

"Dusty did a great job today and the bullpen held strong behind him," said head coach Grant Achilles. "We had a great week of work, and our offense started to click in key situations. To answer back in the bottom of the eighth showed some real toughness, and I'm proud of how we played today."

Parke Phillips (Venice, Fla.) went 2-for-3 at the plate with two RBIs and one walk. Calvin Farris (San Diego, Calif.) also registered two hits and Rich Ciufo (Medford, N.Y.) hit his first home run of the season.

Dustin Baird (Indianapolis, Ind.) went 4.0 innings as the starter and allowed two earned runs with one strikeout, before rookie Joshua Wilder (San Marcos, Texas) followed with three innings of one-hit ball in relief. JJ Sliepka (Houston, Texas) picked up the win and Will Tomlinson (Irvine, Calif.) earned the save in the ninth.

After Fairfield opened with one run in the first, the Bears took the lead with two runs in the third. Elliott Ginns (Chevy Chase, Md.) and Willy Homza (Anchorage, Alaska) drew back-to-back walks to lead off the frame before Phillips drove home both runners with a two-run single up the middle.

Justin Guerrera evened the score in the fourth with an RBI double down the left field line. Ciufo gave the Bears the lead with a solo home run to left field in the bottom of the seventh, but the Stags came back with one run on two hits in the eighth to tie the game.

Delano pushed the Bears back in front in the bottom half when he sent in Phillips with a single to left center. Sluys followed with an RBI-double down the left field line to give the home side a two-run lead.

Tomlinson struck out three batters in the ninth to earn his first save of the season.

Brown and Fairfield will continue the four-game series with a doubleheader on Saturday. The first game is set to start at 11:30 AM.