WAPPINGERS FALLS, N.Y. — For 38 minutes in between the last pitch of the bottom of the fourth, and the final out of the top of the fifth, everybody in Heritage Financial Park assumed that PJ Craig’s day was done.
Except for Craig, his team, and his coaches. The long layoff wasn’t due to a big inning from his Broncs that put the winner-take-all MAAC Championship Game far out of reach. Rider did put up two runs to extend its lead to 5-0, but that’s hardly comfortable, especially not after the Broncs gave up nine runs in an inning just a few hours earlier.
It took 15 minutes in the pouring rain for the grounds crew to refurbish home plate and the pitchers mound. Fairfield made two pitching changes in the inning as well, taking their time on each. But the Broncs’ starter was still locked in.
“(I was going to) keep throwing until I couldn’t throw anymore,” Craig, who pitched a complete game against Merrimack just two days prior in Rider’s first MAAC Tournament game, told Mid-Major Madness.
He ended up going three more innings, allowing just one more hit, and facing just one batter over the minimum. By the time he came out of the game, Rider’s staff only needed to get the final six outs. Four high-stakes games in three days is an impossible spot for a college pitching staff at the end of a long season, as most staffs aren’t built with a rotation or bullpen deep enough to handle it comfortably.
But Craig, a senior hoping for just one more opportunity to put on that jersey, covered 16 of those 36 innings by himself, and it led to a 6-1 win over Fairfield on Saturday, and a MAAC Championship for Rider.
After finishing each inning, Craig was greeted by his entire team outside the dugout. They surrounded him on both left and right as he walked back from the mound, giving him high-fives and words of encouragement.
In his seventh inning of work, he faced the top of Fairfield’s order for the third time. This was the Stags’ chance to get him. Zach Stephenson, sporting a nine-game hit streak, leading off, followed by MAAC Player of the Year Matt Bucciero, and then career .300 hitter JP Kuczik were. But they couldn’t string anything together.
Stephenson struck out, Bucciero’s was stranded at second with his double when the next two hitters flew out. This time, Craig’s work was done. Seven innings, two hits, six strikeouts, one walk.
“This might’ve been the best my fastball has been all year,” Craig said. “Fastball and the cutter was working, and I just wanted to stick with it, keep pumping strikes.”
“The only thing I could think of was just throwing the next pitch and executing the next pitch.”
There would be no repeat of the game from earlier in the day, which forced Craig into action. Had Rider held onto a 6-2 lead on Saturday morning, it would’ve won the MAAC Championship without Craig taking the mound in a winner-take-all game.
Six pitchers threw for the Broncs in that game. In the other three, only three covered all 27 innings. Craig, Kyle Batt, and Christian Aiello combined to allow just four runs over the three games, giving head coach Barry Davis what he needed to manage the tight-rope act that is a conference tournament.
Rider first grabbed the lead in the decider in the second inning on a Fairfield error, and then added to it with an RBI groundout, and an Erich Hartmann single. The three runs from that inning were all the Broncs would end up needing.
Craig allowed back-to-back homers in the top of the second inning on Thursday against Merrimack, but then went the next 14 frames without allowing a run with his college career in the balance.
“Knowing the guys have my back is the biggest part of it,” he said. “We’ve done this all year, and I was just trying to give this team a chance to win.”
He wouldn’t allow anything that wasn’t in front of him to enter his head.
“The adrenaline is pumping,” Craig said. “You don’t even think about that. The only thing I can think about is just throwing the next pitch.”
Craig said he took it one batter at a time.
And for that, he earned the right to wear the jersey one more time.
The Broncs will learn their NCAA Regional fate on Monday, and he’ll have until Friday before he may be called upon again in the opening game of the Tournament.
“(My arm) is a little numb right now,” Craig said. “The whole right side of my body is a little tired, but I’m feeling good. (The next few days will be) a lot of rest, a lot of rehab, just getting ready, seeing where we’re going.”
But for now, it’s euphoria.
“This is the best feeling you can have as a college baseball player,” he said.
