JERSEY CITY, N.J. (NJCUGothicKnights.com) | In a wild ninth inning at the Thomas M. Gerrity Athletic Complex, the New Jersey City University baseball team led first-place Rutgers University-Camden, 8-4, before the Scarlet Raptors scored four times in the top of the frame to tie it at 8-8. But Camden handed it right back to the Gothic Knights in the bottom of the ninth, committing three errors, including a throwing error on a potential inning-ending double play that allowed senior pinch runner Kevin DeMauro (Kearny, NJ/Kearny) to scamper home from third, sliding in with the winning run as NJCU snuck past the Raptors, 9-8, in the opener of a New Jersey Athletic Conference doubleheader on April 18.
 
In a sloppy second game, the clubs combined for nine errors, after 10 were committed in the opener (seven by Camden), but the Raptors scored in each of the final seven innings, prevailing 15-5 to gain a split of the twinbill.
 
The split was enough to keep NJCU (12-16, 4-10 NJAC) alive in the conference playoff race with four games left, but means the Gothic Knights (8 points) likely will need to sweep Stockton (8 points) and William Paterson (10 points) in four games next week if it hopes to catch sixth-place TCNJ (12 points) for the final NJAC Tournament berth.
 
Rutgers-Camden (17-11, 11-3 NJAC), which entered the day two points ahead of Rowan for the overall lead in the conference, now shares first place with the Profs (22 points). NJCU has split with both Rowan and Rutgers-Camden this year.
 
In defeat, senior first baseman Alex Weinstein (Colonia, NJ/JFK-Iselin) had a great afternoon, batting a combined 5-for-8 with four RBIs, three runs scored and his 17th double of the season. After posting five doubles as a freshman in 2012 and just one in each of the past two years, Weinstein continues to have just an incredible senior campaign, tying the 22-year-old single-season record for doubles set by Paul Grasso in 1993.

Meanwhile, senior shortstop Michael Martucci (Bayonne, NJ/Saint Peter's Prep) had four hits in the doubleheader, upping his second-place career total to 183 in 138 games—now 13 shy of matching the program's all-time mark of 196 by Rob Sumner. Martucci, who extended his consecutive games on-base streak to 25, also equaled Sumner for the most games played in school history while eclipsing Sumner's record for career games started (136) by being in the opening lineup for the 137th and 138 times. It was his groundball with one out in the ninth inning in game one that was thrown away, setting off jubilation in Jersey City.