FAIRFIELD, Conn. – The Purple Eagles won the second game of Saturday’s doubleheader 4-1 to earn a split after dropping the opener 13-7 to the Fairfield Stags.
 
“When we pitch and play defense we’re a very solid team,” said head coach Rob McCoy.  “It’s crunch time.  It’s time to start playing good baseball every time out.”
 
Game One
Niagara (14-28, 8-9 MAAC) was first on the board in the early game thanks to a pair of runs in the first half of the second inning.  Greg Rodgers and Jordan Schwartz led off with singles and Evan Wexler walked to load the bases with one out on the board.  Michael Fuhrman stepped to the plate and delivered a single back up the middle that scored two to give the Purple and White the 2-0 lead. 
 
The Stags (12-24, 4-10 MAAC) cut the lead in half in the bottom of the inning with an unearned run and followed up with a six-run third inning.  Two of the final three runs scored in the inning also went down as unearned.  Two runs in the fourth gave the home team the 9-2 lead heading into the fifth, where the purple Eagles began to climb back.
 
Ryan McCauley doubled to deep center field to bring in Fuhrman and cut the deficit to six, 9-3.  A big sixth inning with an RBI-single down the leftfield line from Thomas Rodrigues  a bases-loaded wild pitch that scored Schwartz, and a two-RBI double off the bat of Joel Klock brought the visitors back within two, 9-7. 
 
That was as close as the Purple Eagles would get as the Stags added four more in the eighth and kept Niagara off of the board to come away with a 13-7 win.
 
Kyle Olver (3-7) pitched six innings in the start and gave up nine runs (six earned) on nine hits and struck out five.  Fuhrman, the freshman second baseman, led the way at the dish with a 2-for-3 afternoon.  He added two RBIs, two walks, and two runs.
 
Game Two
The late game was a pitchers dual, with the first run of the ballgame not coming until the fifth inning.  Schwartz (3-4) got the start for Niagara and didn’t give up a hit until the third inning and didn’t allow a runner to reach third base until the fourth.
 
“Jordan competed his tail off today,” McCoy said.  “He had a big performance.”
 
Niagara again drew first blood, this time in the fifth when the first four batters to the plate reached base.  Kevin Paulsen and Jeff Calhoon hit back-to-back singles and Logan Linder forced an error by the shortstop to load the bases for Rodrigues, who stayed in the box on a pitch inside to bring in Paulsen and give NU the 1-0 lead. 
 
Fairfield scored an inning later on a double-play to tie the game at 1-1, and the score would stay tied through seven innings and send the game into extras where the Purple Eagles took the first, and only, multi-run lead of the game.  With one out on the board in the eighth, McCauley doubled to left-center field and advanced to third on a wild pitch.  Rodgers, who went into Saturday with the team-lead in RBIs, hit the first of two RBIs singles and scored when Schwartz followed-up with a RBI single of his own.  Paulsen was the first one up after a Fairfield pitching change and immediately doubles to bring in the third run of the inning and give NU the 4-1 lead. 
 
Schwartz came out to pitch the bottom of the inning and set the Stags down in order to get the complete-game win.  He finished with one run on six hits with six strikeouts and a pair of walks.  McCauley, Rodgers, and Paulsen all finished with two hits, a RBI, and a run. 
 
These two teams have the rubber game of the series tomorrow with first pitch at noon.