OLD WESTBURY, NY (NJCUGothicKnights.com) | Freshman Ray Liguori (Beachwood, NJ/Toms River South) will always remember his first collegiate pitching victory as a thing of beauty. The rookie right-handed pitcher threw a dominant complete-game effort, struck out 10 batters and took a shutout into the ninth inning and defending Skyline Conference champion SUNY Old Westbury had no answer as the New Jersey City University baseball team tamed the Panthers, 5-1, in a non-conference game on March 18.
 
NJCU improves to 7-3 after 10 games with its fourth win in five outings as the Gothic Knights broke open a scoreless game after five innings by scoring single runs in the sixth, seventh and eighth and two insurance runs in the top of the ninth. Old Westbury falls to 9-5.

Liguori threw 105 pitches over the nine innings and walked just one batter against the 10Ks. He allowed one earned run and six hits—five singles—while twice picking off a runner at second base. He faced just five batters over the minimum (32). He retired the first six batters of the game and faced just one batter over the minimum through five frames with a pair of K's in the fourth. He also fanned two batters in the seventh and ninth innings.
 
His performance allowed NJCU to overcome Old Westbury's ace, senior righty Jeremy Charles (Lewisbury, Pa.). A transfer from Division I Hartford where he pitched three seasons in the America East and was the team's closer in 2015 [2.47 ERA, 22 appearances, 4-2 record, 3 saves], Charles suffered the loss (2-2). In 7.0 innings, he struck out seven and walked one over 93 pitches.
 

Leading 2-0, NJCU added a run in the eighth against OW setup man, junior righty Nick Dorcean (Bellerose, NY), who walked three batters. In the top of the ninth, the Knights tacked on two more runs against OW closer, junior righty Ryan Mordecai (Patterson, NY), to build up more of a cushion.
 
Offensively, senior first baseman Andrew Niech (Avenel, NJ/Colonia) climbed into fourth place in school history with 168 hits, as he batted 3-for-5 with a run and RBI. Junior catcher CJ Pulcine (Hazlet, NJ/Raritan) was instrumental to Liguori's effort behind the dish and when he came to the plate, batted 3-for-4 with a run and RBI. Sophomore center fielder Dmitri Rueger (Teaneck, NJ/Teaneck) drew a pair of walks and scored twice. Senior catcher Joey Walsh (Bethpage, NY) had two hits for the Panthers.
 
NJCU had just two hits in the first five innings but its bats came alive in the sixth after a pair of strikeouts. Niech had a two-out single, stole second and scored when junior right fielder Joe Coutinho (Colonia, NJ/Colonia) singled to right. In the bottom of the inning, OW had a leadoff single but with one out, Liguori picked a runner off at second base.
 
In the seventh, Pulcine led off with a single, was sacrificed to second and scored on an RBI single by junior left fielder Nick Ruscingno (Teaneck, NJ/Teaneck) for a 2-0 margin.
 
With Charles knocked out of the game in the eighth, Rueger led off the inning with a walk, stole second, advanced to third on a wild pitch and scored on an RBI single by Pulcine. OW had runners on first and second in the bottom of the eighth with two outs and the tying run at the plate after a walk and single. But Liguori picked off another runner at second to end the threat. In the ninth, Niech had an RBI single to score junior third baseman Taylor Born (South Plainfield, NJ/South Plainfield) who led off with a single and Rueger, who walked, later scored on a wild pitch. OW broke up the shutout bid with a two-out RBI single by junior first baseman Dean Sheridan (Huntington, NY) after a double by junior shortstop Tommy Ziegen (Glen Cove, NY) before Liguori ended the game with his 10th strikeout (and second looking).
 
#QuotableKnights
Head Coach Jerry Smith (Fifth Season) on the performance by Ray Liguori:

 
"I think Ray is settling down. I knew when we were recruiting him last year that he was going to be a conference starter for us and we knew he had it in him. He just needed some time to adapt to some college starts. In his first outing, his walk to strikeout ratio was 5:1 and he had four strikeouts and two walks in his last outing. Today he had command of three pitches and hit spots. That's something he has done better and improved upon in each of his three starts."
 
Jerry Smith on beating a quality Old Westbury team:
"We have a lot of respect for Old Westbury. They're an NCAA team from a year ago and won 26 times. They're competitive every year. They are a high base-stealing team. We talked about controlling the running game and Ray took care of that by limiting the number of people on base. We knew with them having a week off that we were going to see their best [ace Jeremy Charles]. Ray went toe-to-toe with them. Our motto was to hang around and keep it close and drive his [Charles] pitch count up. We pushed across a run in the sixth inning. From there our strategy was to just play for a run. And that's what you need to do sometimes—just change your strategy. Today we knew it would be a day we play for runs with the wind blowing in and how good of a pitcher he [Charles] was. We played smaller today and did a good job extending the lead and giving ourselves a cushion up until the ninth inning after we scored that run."
 
Pitching Coach Nick Cesare (Fifth Season) on the performance by Ray Liguori:
"We preach to our pitchers to attack hitters each pitch and Ray really did that today. He was able to command the baseball and because of that was able to navigate through a good lineup for nine innings. Ray's goal for today was to limit free bases and he did a very good job with that."
 
Freshman right-handed pitcher Ray Liguori assessing his performance:
"It felt amazing to shut down a talented team. I was only concentrated on pounding the strike zone and getting ahead of batters and the two pickoffs today were key by preventing a big inning. My catcher CJ Pulcine was very important in my performance today; he called a great game."
 
OF NOTE:

• Zach Buchholz extends his on-base streak to 27 consecutive games with an eighth-inning walk.
• Andrew Niech moved into fourth place in school history with 168 hits in 122 games, passing Phil Zaffarano who had 167 hits from 1994-97. Next on the list: Rob Gonzalez with 177 hits from 2009-11.
• Nick Ruscingno has 79 hits in 75 career games.
• Joe Coutinho needs one hit for 50 (49 in 69 games; 41 in his last 44).

 
#NextKnightTime:
NJCU will play its 2016 home opener on Tuesday, March 22 at 3:30 p.m. when it hosts Lehman College at the Thomas M. Gerrity Athletic Complex. Follow the live broadcast (https://www.youtube.com/user/NJCUGothicKnights/Live) and live stats (http://www.sidearmstats.com/njcu/baseball/).