Fairfield Baseball opened the MAAC Championship with a win on Thursday at Clover Stadium.
Postseason baseball is underway as the MAAC Regular Season Champion Stags opened the conference tournament on Thursday with an 8-7 win over Manhattan. Top-seeded Fairfield returns to action in the semifinal round of the MAAC Championship on Friday at 11 a.m. from Clover Stadium in Pomona, N.Y.
Thursday’s win ran the Stags’ record to 35-16 on the season. Fairfield, with 16-5 in conference play, became the first team to ever win three consecutive outright MAAC regular season titles. The Stags have also posted four straight 30-win seasons (excluding the 2020 campaign that was canceled due to Covid-19) for the first time in program history.
Head Coach Bill Currier’s squad has been guided by a potent offense that has slugged a conference-record 91 home runs to date. That onslaught has been paced by MAAC Player of the Year Charlie Pagliarini, who won the conference “triple crown,” batting .406 with 21 home runs and 86 RBI – both Fairfield single-season records.
The hot-hitting third baseman was joined on the All-MAAC First Team by graduate shortstop Noah Lucier, second baseman Mike Becchetti ’23, and pitcher Colin McVeigh ’24.
Rounding out the All-MAAC honors, a pair of graduate students in pitcher Jake Noviello ’22 and designated hitter Mike Handal ‘’22 were tabbed for the Second Team and outfielder Matt Bucciero ’26 landed on the All-Rookie Team.
Fairfield’s semifinal game on Friday starts at 11 a.m., with McVeigh expected to start on the mound against either Rider or Quinnipiac. The winner of that game will advance to Saturday’s MAAC Championship Series, while the loser will play an elimination game on Friday evening.
The Stags are vying for the third NCAA postseason trip in program history, having won the MAAC Championship in 2016 and earning an at-large bid to the tournament during their historic 2021 campaign.
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