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WINTER HAVEN, FL (NJCUGothicKnights.com) | Sophomore left-hander DELIO COUTINHO (Colonia, NJ/Colonia) struck out 10 batters in 7.1 innings but New Jersey City University was limited to one run and six hits in a complete-game performance by McDaniel College junior right-hander Zach Jones (Frederick, MD) as the Green Terror defeated NJCU, 7-1, in game two of the 2012 spring baseball trip played at Chain of Lakes Park Field #2 on Sunday morning.
 
McDaniel, which has allowed just one run in its last 23 innings, won its third in a row, improving to 4-3 while NJCU dropped to 1-2 overall. The Knights trailed just 2-1 entering the eighth inning before a solo homer and four unearned runs cemented the win for McDaniel.
 
Jones (1-1), the Green Terror ace, won his first game, striking out six versus two walks, while allowing just six singles and one run with a hit batter over a 131-pitch performance, that included 15 fly ball outs (five ground outs).
 
Coutinho pitched well enough to win but suffered the loss in his first career start and second appearance (0-1) since transferring to NJCU from Sussex County Community College. In 7.1 innings he K'd 10 and walked three (one hit batter) with three earned runs (four total) and six hits over 125 pitches. He has now struck out 17 batters and walked just six in 10.2 innings to begin his NJCU career, and opponents are hitting only .154 against him.
 
First-year head coach Jerry Smith broke down the performance of his pitching staff in the loss and overall this season by saying “The pitching staff so far has been solid; 16 innings in a row it's a 2-2 game—the nine from yesterday [1-0 win over Daniel Webster College on March 10] and the first seven from today. When I broke it down, 23 of the 27 innings [combined] we're playing an 8-6 game. It's been four bad innings and we have to be able to eliminate those innings.”
 
“Personally, from Delio, we can't ask anything more,” Smith commended. “10 strikeouts, three walks. He let up a handful of hits but one was an infield hit on a fly ball where there was miscommunication. It was a great performance. That's a game that we need to be able to win.”
 
Freshman right fielder MATTHEW WAGNER (Colonia, NJ/Colonia) made his first career start and was NJCU's lone player with multiple hits, batting 2-for-4 with the lone run scored.
 
McDaniel, a team with eight players from New Jersey on the roster, scored twice in the second inning on a two-run homerun that carried over the left field fence by senior first baseman Ricky LaSota (Burtonsville, MD). That 2-0 lead proved to be enough. It was LaSota's only hit although he later came around to score a second run.
 
New Jersey native and junior right fielder Pat Christopher (Union Beach, NJ/St. John Vianney), who entered the game batting .520 on the season, was 2-for-4 with a two-RBI double and made seven putouts defensively. Sophomore designated hitter James Chiorello (East Windsor, NJ/Lawrenceville Prep) was 1-for-5 with a solo homerun to lead off the eighth inning for a 3-1 margin.
 
The game had an interesting dynamic because of the New Jersey connections, particularly from Colonia, NJ where NJCU assistant coach Matt Cilento was once head and assistant coach. There were four players from the high school in the game with Coutinho and Wagner both starting for NJCU and junior second baseman Tyler Jackow (Colonia, NJ/Colonia) getting the start for the Green Terror against his former teammates.
 
After McDaniel gained a 2-0 lead on the LaSota homer in the second inning, sophomore third baseman Joe Fiore (Point Pleasant Beach, NJ/Point Pleasant Beach) doubled on the 11^th pitch of his at bat, Christopher walked and the bases were loaded on a fielder's choice before Coutinho got out of the inning, stranding the bases full with his third strikeout of the inning.
 
Both pitchers were in control in the third and fourth innings before NJCU loaded the bases in the bottom of the fifth as Wagner led off with a single, junior catcher RYAN WINTERS (Hackettstown, NJ/Hackettstown) singled to center and junior third baseman BRIAN BUSTILLO (Jersey City, NJ/Hudson Catholic) dropped a bunt that fell between the pitcher and third baseman. With no outs, the Knights hit into a double play orchestrated by Jackow and although Wagner scored to make it a 2-1 game and Winters advanced to third, NJCU wasted a chance to tie the game. Junior center fielder MICHAEL PATTERSON (Piscataway, NJ/Piscataway) flew out to left on the next pitch—a fly ball that would have resulted in a game-tying sacrifice fly if there had been less than two outs.
 
Neither team plated runs in the sixth or seventh innings before Chiorello's homer to left field on an 0-2 pitch made it 3-1 in the top of the eighth. After a one-out walk, freshman righty KEVIN DEMAURO (Kearny, NJ/Kearny) made his first career appearance and forced a pop fly for the second out of the inning. A ground ball to third should have ended the inning but an error kept the frame alive and allowed the Green Terror to drive in three unearned runs—two on a double down the left field line by Christopher before a wild pitch made it 6-1.
 
NJCU left two runners on in the eighth inning. Sophomore lefty ZACK MARKLE (Hoboken, NJ/Hoboken) made his first appearance of the season in the ninth inning. A leadoff infield error put a runner on before a sac fly by sophomore shortstop Marshall Betts (Berlin, MD) pushed home the seventh run—the fourth consecutive unearned run scored by McDaniel after gaining a 3-1 margin. DeMauro allowed just one hit in his appearance while Markle had one strikeout without giving up a hit.
 
Smith, discussing what NJCU needs to be able to do to win these close games said: “We need to relax and stop putting so much pressure on ourselves from an offensive standpoint and be able to make in-game adjustments quicker—something we need to be able to do on the collegiate level. It's one thing to make adjustments from game to game which we were obviously unable to do between yesterday and today, but we should not only be making them from day to day but also between at bats and that's what we're not doing. We're not making adjustments quickly enough to excel on the offensive end.”
 
On Monday, March 12, NJCU faces defending Little East Conference champion Rhode Island College (2-1) at 11:30 a.m. in Winter Haven, at Chain of Lakes Park Field #5. The live broadcast of that game is slated to begin at 11:25 a.m.