GALLOWAY, N.J. — The New Jersey City University baseball team faced off with Stockton University on the road on Saturday, April 8, for a pair of New Jersey Athletic Conference (NJAC) games. Some strong pitching in game one was unfortunately not enough as the Ospreys took that one, 6-1. NJCU's bats came alive in game two, but the Gothic Knights unfortunately fell to Stockton, 12-9.
Game 1 | Stockton 6, NJCU 1:
The Ospreys (15-10, 3-3 NJAC) put up two runs via a homer with one out in the bottom of the first against the Green and Gold (10-14, 1-5 NJAC) to take an early 2-0 lead. The home team then put up three more runs in the bottom of the fourth to take a 5-0 lead, two of which crossed the plate as unearned run against NJCU's rookie starter
Dom Yarson (Ewing, N.J./Ewing). The freshman righthander had a strong, 7.0 inning performance, allowing four earned with five strikeouts in the loss. The Ospreys scratched across their final run of the game in the bottom of the fifth.
NJCU made it 6-1 in the top of the sixth. Senior rightfielder
Josh Hernandez (Lake Worth, Fla./Park Vista Community) led off with a double down the line in right and junior third baseman
Garrett Allo (Monroe, N.J./East Brunswick Tech) followed with a walk. With two outs, both runners advanced to second and third via a balk. Senior second baseman
Jimmy Vizzoni (Hamilton, N.J./Trenton Catholic) followed by drawing a free bag of his own. With the bases juiced. sophomore first baseman
John Abrahamsen (Freehold, N.J./Freehold Township) got plunked to force in a run. Jersey City looked to get a rally going in the top of the eighth, as well. Vizzoni reached on an infield single with one out and then Abrahamsen followed with a single to put two runners on. Unfortunately Vizzoni was caught stealing later on to end the inning.
Game 2 | Stockton 12, NJCU 9:
As mentioned, NJCU's bats came alive in this one, scoring nine runs on 12 hits in the loss. The Gothic Knights got it going with a three-run first inning to take an early lead over Stockton. Graduate centerfielder
Ricky Voss (Eatontown, N.J./Monmouth Regional) kicked it off with a one-out single down the line in left before Yarson singled in the next at-bat to put two runners on. With two outs and runners on the corners, Vizzoni cleared the bases with a two-run triple to the gap in right to make it 2-0. Abrahamsen followed with a one-run infield single to short, plating Vizzoni to make it 3-0. Unfortunately, the Ospreys scored four unearned runs in the bottom of the first to go ahead, 4-3. They then tacked on two more unearned runs in the bottom of the second to take a 6-3 advantage. Stockton's first earned run of the second game made it 7-3 after three innings.
After both teams went down in order in the fourth, Jersey City cut the deficit to two with a couple in the top of the fifth. Allo led off with a single to left, followed by a base hit from Voss to put two runners on. With one out, Hernandez notched a RBI single to make it 7-4 before, two at-bats later, Abrahamsen reached on a two-out error at short to force Voss in from third to make it 7-5. A one-out, two-run single for Stockton in the bottom half pushed it back to 9-5. The Gothic Knights got three runs back in the top of the sixth. With one out and the bases juiced, Yarson reached on an error at third to score two runs before Hernandez did the same, reaching on a miscue at first to load the bases. Vizzoni then hit a sac fly to center to plate Voss and make it 9-8.
Stockton got one back in the home half, but Jersey City matched it with one of its own in the top of the seventh. Senior
Caleb Ware (Newark, N.J./University) reached first on a two-out walk before stealing second to get into scoring position. Allo then singled up the middle to plate the speedy Ware from second and make it 10-9. Unfortunately, the Ospreys iced it with two runs in the bottom of the eighth to make it 12-9, which was the final.
Game 2 Highlights:
- Allo finished 3-for-6 with two runs and a RBI.
- Voss was 2-for-5 with three runs and a walk. He also walked twice in game one.
- Yarson was 2-for-5 with a RBI and a double.
- Vizzoni was 1-for-4 with a run, a sac fly, a triple and three RBI.
Up Next:
NJCU has a quick non-conference match-up with #RV St. Joseph's University-Long Island on Tuesday, April 11, in Patchogue, N.Y., at 6:00 p.m. before returning to NJAC action at home on Thursday, April 13 at the Thomas M. Gerrity Athletic Complex against #22 Montclair State University at 3:30 p.m.
