BOX SCORE
GAME PROGRAM/NOTES
used an explosive eight-run sixth inning to overcome a 6-1 deficit and junior shortstop
TOM BURKE (Edison, NJ/Immaculata) notched his 100
th career hit before entering in relief in the ninth inning, earning a save by striking out the final two batters as the Gothic Knights stunned Rutgers-Newark, 9-8, in a New Jersey Athletic Conference baseball game on Friday at the Thomas M. Gerrity Athletic Complex.
NJCU (13-19, 2-11 NJAC) wins its third consecutive game and hands Rutgers-Newark (16-17, 6-6 NJAC), which is in the heart of the NJAC Tournament race, just its third loss in its last 11 games. The Knights snapped a five-game losing streak to their all-sports rival, winning for the first time since April 13, 2007. The teams split the season series, with the Scarlet Raiders winning at home on April 15, 7-3, despite being outhit by NJCU.
Burke became the 32nd player in the 63-year history of the program to enter the 100-hit club and the third Gothic Knight this season to reach the threshold, joining senior catcher/designated hitter
ALEX MENA (Jersey City, NJ/Hudson Catholic) and sophomore left fielder/second baseman
ROB GONZALEZ (Brick, NJ/Brick Memorial).
Junior center fielder
KEN WITTE (Wantage, NJ/High Point Regional) notched three RBIs, going 2-for-5 with one run, to extend his hitting streak to 13 games while generating his 19
th multiple-hit game of the season, including his 12
th double.
Gonzalez was 2-for-4 with two runs.
Burke, sophomorecatcher
FRANCISCO RAMIREZ (Jersey City, NJ/Hudson Catholic) and freshman second baseman
BRIAN BUSTILLO (Jersey City, NJ/Hudson Catholic) were each 2-for-4 with one run and one RBI.
Bustillo collected two doubles while
Ramirez moved within three of the single-season
record with his 14
th double of the year.
Junior third baseman
MICHAEL FIORENTINO (Point Pleasant Beach, NJ/Point Pleasant Beach) scored twice, finishing 1-for-4 and with 96 career hits is four shy of becoming the fourth player to reach 100 hits this year and the second to accomplish the feat in just two seasons this season (and eighth in school history).
For the Raiders, senior first baseman Matt Lingo (Mechanicsburg, PA/East Pennsboro) was 2-for-4 with three RBIs and a run, after hitting a go-ahead two-run homer in the fifth inning that gave the visitors a 2-1 lead.
Sophomore right fielder Chris Ballester (Freehold, NJ/Freehold Township) was 2-for-3 with two runs. Junior center fielder Michael DiCenso (Wayne, NJ/Wayne Valley) added a 3-for-5 effort with one run and one RBI and junior second baseman Matt Connors (Hasbrouck Heights, NJ/Hasbrouck Heights, NJ) added a 2-for-5 showing with a run and RBI.
Ju
nior right-hander JEFF KARCZEWSKI (Hamilton, NJ/Hamilton West) has now been the winning pitcher in both of the Knights' NJAC victories this season. Despite allowing a season-high seven earned runs and nine hits, he hung tough over 7.0 innings, striking out two and walking three. He improved to 4-1 on the season and 7-5 in two seasons.
Freshman righty
ALVIN CARRASCO (Jersey City, NJ/St. Mary's (Jersey City)) allowed one run and one hit with one strikeout in an eight-pitch eighth inning, before getting a key groundout to end the frame.
Burke came on for the ninth, tossing two strikeouts against a lone single.
Sophomore righty
Connor Medler (Edison, NJ/J.P. Stevens) received a no-decision for the Raiders. In 5.1 innings, he allowed six runs and seven hits with three strikeouts and a walk. Freshman righty
Justin Szablicki (Nutley, NJ/Nutley) suffered his first loss (0-1). In one-third of an inning while facing five batters, he was charged with three runs and four hits. Freshman righty
Matt Larangera (Livingston, NJ/Livingston) threw the final 2.1 innings, allowing just one hit, with three K's and two walks.
In what was an early pitcher's duel, Karczewski faced the minimum 12 batters over the first four innings, allowing just a walk that was erased with a pickoff and a single scratched away with a double play. Meanwhile, Medler set aside the first eight NJCU batters before a third-inning Bustillo double.
The Knights claimed a 1-0 lead in the bottom of the fourth. Fiorentino walked and scored when Ramirez doubled to right center with one out. The Raiders gained a 2-1 lead in the top of the fifth as senior designated hitter Anthony Yeswita (Hasbrouck Heights, NJ/Hasbrouck Heights, NJ) walked and Lingo lofted his fourth homer of the season over the right field wall. The homer was an NJAC-leading 27th of the year for the Raiders.
In the top of the sixth, the Raiders sent nine batters to the plate and scored four times on four hits to jump out to a commanding 6-1 lead. Ballester walked, Connors singled and DiCenso and junior shortstop Patrick Reitemeyer (Kearny, NJ/St. Mary's-Rutherford) followed with a pair of RBI singles for a 4-1 margin. Yeswita drove in DiCenso with a sacrifice fly before Lingo singled to left with two outs, scoring Reitemeyer with the fourth run of the inning. However, with runners on second and third, Karczewski got out of further trouble with a ground ball back to the mound.
That led to the eight-run, nine-hit sixth inning as the Knights matched their largest single-inning run production of the year, after previously scoring eight runs in the third inning against St. Joseph's College (Brooklyn) on March 21. It was the most runs NJCU scored against a conference opponent in an inning since piling eight runs on Montclair State University in the fourth inning on April 17, 2008.
Gonzalez led off with a walk and scored when
Witte ripped a double down the left field line.
Witte stole third and scored when the throw sailed into left field.
Fiorentino and
Ramirez followed with singled and with one out,
Burke's 99
th career hit, a single up the middle, scored
Fiorentino as NJCU drew within a 6-4 deficit. After a pitching change, junior first baseman
JORDAN TETRICK (Delray Beach, FL/Radnor (Pa.), who had been mired in a 2-for-17 slump, broke out with a single that scored
Ramirez, cutting the Newark lead to 6-5. Junior right fielder
JORGE GUTIERREZ (Sewaren, NJ/Hudson Catholic) laid down a well-timed, well-placed sacrifice bunt that scored
Burke with the tying run while pushing
Tetrick into scoring position.
Bustillo laced a 2-0 pitch down the right field line, scoring
Tetrick as NJCU seized a 7-6 lead with two outs.
Gonzalez, in his second plate appearance of the inning, tallied an infield single.
With runners on the corners,
Gonzalez stole second and
Witte cemented the inning with a single to left-center—his second hit and third RBIs of the frame—as
Bustillo and
Gonzalez each raced home for a 9-6 lead.
Newark got a run back in the seventh. Ballester lined the first pitch of the inning and the ball got past a diving Gonzalez, dribbling to the wall for a triple. He scored on an infield single by Connors, making it 9-7. Connors moved to second on a wild pitch with no outs before Karczewski pitched his way out of danger, as DiCenso flew out, moving Connors to third, before coercing a ground out to third by Reitemeyer. With two outs, Karczewski struck out Yeswita looking.
Mena walked in the seventh and Burke rifled a 2-0 pitch into right field for his 100th career hit before Larangera fanned the final two batters in the inning. In the top of the eighth, Newark drew within one run, 9-8. Senior third baseman Joe Furnaguera (Springfield, NJ/Jonathan Dayton) was hit by a pitch, moved to second on a balk and scored on a single up the middle by sophomore catcher Anthony Palladino (Emerson, NJ/Emerson), before Carrasco got a key groundout to end the threat.
After NJCU didn't extend the lead in the eighth, Burke moved to the mound from shortstop with one job—maintain a one-run lead against a Raider team that had already split with first place Rowan University and swept nationally-ranked Kean University. Connors grounded out before DiCenso singled on a 3-1 pitch. But Burke dug deep, striking out Reitemeyer on four pitches. Then, with Yeswita, the right-handed Newark clean-up hitter at the plate, the count went full before Burke fired a 3-2 pitch on the inside corner for a called strike three.
NJCU is back in action on Saturday, April 24 when it visits Richard Stockton College in Pomona, NJ for an 11:30 a.m. NJAC doubleheader. Meanwhile, Newark faces The College of New Jersey at 12 p.m. that day in an NJAC doubleheader with significance to both schools for the post-season.
—www.njcugothicknights.com—
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Friday, April 23, 2010 | Jersey City, NJ
|
|
Rutgers-Newark (16-17, 6-6 NJAC)
|
0
|
0
|
0
|
0
|
2
|
4
|
1
|
1
|
0
|
8
|
11
|
1
|
|
New Jersey City University (13-19, 2-11 NJAC)
|
0
|
0
|
0
|
1
|
0
|
8
|
0
|
0
|
X
|
9
|
12
|
0
|
|
WP: JEFF KARCZEWSKI (4-1). LP: Justin Szablicki (0-1). SV: TOM BURKE (2). HR: Matt Lingo (4).
|
|
100 HIT CLUB MEMBERS BY SEASONS
|
|
YEAR
|
# OF PLAYERS TO REACH
|
PLAYERS
|
|
1981
|
1
|
Joe Wells
|
|
1985
|
1
|
Ray Nazzaro
|
|
1986
|
1
|
Sean Costello
|
|
1987
|
1
|
Rich Levens
|
|
1989
|
3
|
Dave Long, Jim Roselli, Anthony Squeglia
|
|
1990
|
1
|
Romano Lake
|
|
1992
|
1
|
Nick Cucinello
|
|
1993
|
1
|
Paul Grasso
|
|
1994
|
1
|
Charlie Auletto
|
|
1996
|
3
|
B.J. Fearon, Jeff Gajewski, Phil Zaffarano
|
|
1998
|
1
|
Eric Martinez
|
|
1999
|
3
|
Justin Pelka, Rick Pizzuti, Brian Veneziano
|
|
2003
|
1
|
Phil Lospalluto
|
|
2004
|
4
|
Denis Peguero, Pat Moore, Steve Stiller, Jonathan Thomas
|
|
2005
|
1
|
Anthony Caivano
|
|
2006
|
1
|
Rob Sumner
|
|
2007
|
1
|
Ruben Borges
|
|
2008
|
2
|
Jose Fulgencio, Anthony Mackow
|
|
2009
|
1
|
MARK HOYER
|
|
2010
|
3
|
TOM BURKE, ROB GONZALEZ, ALEX MENA
|
|
Last update: April 23, 2010
|
|
FASTEST PLAYERS TO REACH 100 CAREER HITS (TWO SEASONS)
|
|
DATE
|
PLAYER
|
# OF GAMES
|
OPPONENT
|
|
1987
|
Rich Levens
|
> 62
|
Had 107 hits in 62 games; box scores n/a for 1987
|
|
1994
|
Charlie Auletto
|
63
|
at Montclair State University (05/05/1994)
|
|
2003
|
Phil Lospalluto
|
63
|
William Paterson University (04/28/2003)
|
|
2006
|
Rob Sumner
|
70
|
Rowan University (04/29/2006)
|
|
2008
|
Jose Fulgencio
|
65
|
Rowan University (04/12/2008)
|
|
2009
|
MARK HOYER
|
67
|
at Rutgers University-Camden (04/25/2009)
|
|
2010
|
ROB GONZALEZ
|
64
|
at The College of New Jersey (04/10/2010)
|
|
2010
|
MICHAEL FIORENTINO
|
?
|
as of 4/23/2010 has 96 hits in 70 games
|
|
Last update: April 23, 2010
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