Marra’s Walk-Off Lifts Brown to Doubleheader Sweep of Princeton

Saturday, April 30

Providence, R.I.

11:30 AM

Brown University

9-22, 0

Princeton

6-28, 0

Princeton

Brown

Photo by: Tamar Kreitman

Marra’s Walk-Off Lifts Brown to Doubleheader Sweep of Princeton

4/30/2022 6:37:00 PM | Baseball

Box Score 1 Box Score 2 Photo Gallery Photo Gallery 2

PROVIDENCE, R.I. – Junior first baseman Ryan Marra capped off a four-hit afternoon with a mammoth walk-off home run in the bottom of the ninth to lift the Brown baseball team to a thrilling 5-4 victory in game two to complete a doubleheader sweep of Princeton on Saturday afternoon.

Marra finished the doubleheader 4-for-6 with five RBIs and three runs scored, including a pair of home runs in game two. Five other Bears all had two hits in the doubleheader while sophomore Jared Johnson had two RBIs in game one.

The Bears fell behind 3-0 in the first inning of both games, each time on a three-run homer, before rallying late to win. While power highlighted the rally in game two, small ball was the difference in game one, where Brown scored the tying and go-ahead runs on a pair of safety squeezes as part of a three-run eighth inning to win 7-5.

Charlie Beilenson and Santhosh Gottam fired 7.0 innings of scoreless relief between the two games, allowing just two hits and no walks to each earn the wins.

Brown's bullpen has not allowed an earned run over its last 22.1 innings of work, dating back to the seventh inning on Easter Sunday at Yale.

GAME ONE

After two quick outs in the first, Princeton used a double, walk, and a big three run homer to take an early 3-0 lead.
Brown quickly rallied to come back and go ahead 4-3 with one run in the first and three more in the second, all with two outs. Johnson tagged a two-out RBI single to left in the first inning, and Brown added three unearned runs in the second, highlighted by a big two-out RBI single up the middle by Marra to take a one-run lead.
Princeton used a pair of two out-runs in the third and fourth innings to regain the lead 5-4.
Brown broke out the rally caps and took the lead with three runs in the eighth inning, with the help of two safety squeezes.
Johnson dropped down a safety squeeze in front of the plate to tie the game with nobody out, scoring Marra from the third who dove under the tag with a headfirst slide.
Two batters later, Charles Crawford plated Reece Rappoli with another perfectly executed squeeze, and Jacob Burley followed with an RBI single to add an insurance run and give the Bears a 7-5 lead.
Gottam allowed just one hit over the final four innings to keeps the Tigers off the board and retired the side in order in the top of the ninth to earn his team-leading fourth win of the year.

GAME TWO

The Tigers started game two exactly like the first one, clubbing two hits including a three-run homer to take the early 3-0 lead.
Brown was held in check until the fifth inning when Ray Sass knocked an RBI single up the middle to cut it to 3-1. Up next with two on, Marra crushed an 0-2 breaking ball down the line in right inside the pole for a go-ahead three-run homer to put the Bears in front 4-3.
The Tigers retied it 4-4 with a sixth inning homer.
Beilenson dominated on the mound, getting two big strikeouts with runners in scoring position to end the seventh and eighth innings.
Leading off the ninth, Marra sat on a 1-1 fastball and launched the no-doubt walk off over the right field fence for his second homer of the game, and third in the last three games.

POSTGAME QUOTES
Head Coach Grant Achilles: "Princeton's a relay talented team and they're short on their roster, and they can be threatening and you want to take advantage of every opportunity you can and fortunately for us we were able to get the big hit when we needed it today."

Ryan Marra: On his first home run – "I was just fighting with two strikes, and I saw that curve ball a couple times before that and I was able to make the adjustment mid at-bat and found a barrel."

On the walk-off - "Not trying to do too much. Just trying to find a barrel and pass it on to the next guy because I have confidence in everyone behind me that they could've driven me in and gotten the walk-off. It just happened to be me today."

ON DECK
The Bears will go for the series sweep tomorrow afternoon when they finish off the three-game series starting at noon on ESPN+.

Gallery: (4-30-2022) Baseball vs. Princeton

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