NJAC Baseball Tournament First Round Recap

The New Jersey Athletic Conference baseball tournament got underway Tuesday at campus sites across the state. The double-elimination tournament now moves on to Kean University for games Friday through the weekend.

No. 9 ranked TCNJ gets shutout win over WPU

Top-seed, The College of New Jersey, continued their dominance with a 9-0 victory over William Paterson. The Lions took an early lead, scoring twice in the second inning. The first run came as Austin Lindsay scored from third on a passed ball. David Cardona III drove in the second run with an RBI single to left field.

TCNJ starting pitcher Joe Cirillo recorded the complete game shutout while striking out four batters and not walking any. Cirillo allowed nine hits. He improves to 9-1 on the season.

Junior Chris Babb took the loss for WPU.

The Pioneers will face fifth-seeded Kean in an elimination game Friday, May 4, at 12:00 p.m. at Kean. TCNJ will play No. 3 seed Rutgers-Camden at 3:30pm.

Infield error caps ninth inning rally in Ramapo win

The winning run came across the plate in the bottom of the ninth as the No. 2 seed Ramapo Roadrunners defeated No. 5 seeded Kean.

Down a run entering the ninth, Connor Walsh doubled, scoring Joe Maugeri and force the 3-3 tie. Liam Duffy would reach on a single, his third hit of the day. Matt Chemis followed with another single and Evan Ochlan would be called upon to pinch run for Duffy. Ochlan would score the winner shortly after on an infield error.

Kevin Foulds gets the win after pitching 1.1 scoreless and hitless innings. Jerry D’Andrea started for the Roadrunners and went 7.2 innings, allowing three runs (two earned) on six hits and striking out five. He also walked five. Justin Diefenbach took the loss for Kean, lasting 8.2 innings and giving up four runs (two earned) on ten hits. He struck out six and walked three.

Ramapo advances to play No. 4 seed Rowan on Friday, May 4, at 7:00 p.m. at Kean. Kean will play No. 6 seed William Paterson at noon in an elimination game.

No. 4 seed Rowan tops No. 3 seed Rutgers-Camden

What was expected to be a pitchers dual between Ian Scheidemann of Rutgers-Camden and Rowan’s Danny Serreino, quickly turned into an easy victory for the Profs.

Rowan scored on an error to take a 1-0 lead in the first inning. The Profs followed that up with a four-run second inning to stake themselves to a comfortable 5-0 lead. The Scarlet Raptors scored two runs in the fourth but that was an much as they could muster in this one.

Rowan recorded 21 hits in the game and were led by second baseman Alex Kokos who went five-for-six with a double, triple, three RBI and two runs scored.

Scheidemann gave up 16 hits and nine runs (five earned) in 5.2 innings, losing his first game of the season. Serreino improved to 6-2 on the season after giving up two runs on seven hits through seven innings. He struck out eight and walked just one.

Rutgers-Camden will try to avoid elimination when they play No. 1 seed TCNJ on Friday, May 4, at 3:30 p.m. at Kean. Rowan will play No. 2 seed Ramapo at 7:00 p.m.