JERSEY CITY, N.J. — The New Jersey City University baseball team, in known history, has never swept a regular-season series against William Paterson University, but the Gothic Knights came very close on Friday afternoon, April 26, at the Thomas M. Gerrity Atheltic Complex, playing the second leg of a two-day home-and-home with the Pioneers. After a
historic win against William Paterson on the road on Thursday, April 25, which got the Gothic Knights to their most New Jersey Athletic Conference (NJAC) victories since 1995, NJCU fell behind early to WPU on Friday, 3-0, but came back to take a 4-3 lead after five innings. However, a pair late-inning home runs gave the Pioneers the 6-4 win and the series split.
Neither squad was able to get on the board in the first couple of innings, but William Paterson (10-26, 5-11 NJAC) scored first via a two-run homer in the top of the third. A botched pick-off attempt by NJCU (14-21, 7-9 NJAC) in the top of the fourth made it 3-0 in favor of the visitors. The Gothic Knights got one back in the bottom of the fourth, though, as junior catcher
Nick Vaughn (Ocean Township, N.J./Ocean Township) knocked in fifth year centerfielder
Bryan Fernandez (Sayreville, N.J./Sayreville War Memorial) from second to make it 3-1.
After junior righthander
Andre Dean (Bloomfield, N.J./Bloomfield) settled down with a scoreless top of the fifth, the Green and Gold put up two more runs in the home half to go up 4-3. Rookie second baseman
Jeremy Ricourt (Perth Amboy, N.J./JFK Memorial) led off with a single to center and then senior designated hitter
Garrett Allo (Monroe, N.J./East Brunswick Tech) walked to put two men on. Sophomore rightfielder
Dom Yarson (Ewing, N.J./Ewing) plated Ricourt next with a one-run single. A pitching change followed by a balk put runners on second and third, moving two in scoring position for freshman leftfielder
Enrique Beltra (Monroe, N.J./Ranney). The rookie plated a pair with a two-run double down the third base line to give NJCU the one-run lead.
Dean continued to cruise through the next two scoreless and his day came to a close up 4-3 after 7.0 innings, allowing two earned on five hits with seven strikeouts on 132 pitches. He did not factor into the game's final decision, but his season ERA dropped down to 3.60 over 55.0 innings with 54 strikeouts.
The first pitch of the top of the eighth went for a home run and the Pioneers tied it up at 4-4. NJCU did manage to get runners on the corners with two outs in the next half inning, but could push a run across. A two-run shot for WPU in the top of the ninth made it 6-4. With two outs, an infield single by rookie first baseman
Brandon Piacenza (Bloomfield, N.J./Bloomfield) loaded the bases, but a groundout next ended the game.
Highlights:
- Yarson finished 1-for-4 with a run, a RBI and a walk. He has reached base in 17 straight games, including a current 15-game hitting streak.
- Ricourt finished 1-for-3 with a run scored, a walk, a stolen base and was hit by a pitch.
- Allow was 0-for-2 but walked three times and scored a run. He is riding an 11-game on-base streak.
- Beltra was 1-for-5 with two RBI, which came on the double in the fifth.
- Fernandez was 2-for-4 with a run and a walk.
- Piacneza was 1-for-4 with a walk and a stolen base and is now on a 10-game hitting streak and 11-game on-base streak.
- Vaughn was also 1-for-4, knocking in a run with a walk and a stolen base.
Up Next:
Thanks to some help from Rutgers-Newark, the Gothic Knights remain alive for a chance to secure a spot in the NJAC Tournament. NJCU is 7-9 in conference play and tied with The College of New Jersey for seventh place — six teams qualify. The Gothic Knights are one game back of #19-ranked Rowan University (8-8), who lost to Rutgers-Newark today. The Green and Gold square off with the Profs on the road tomorrow, April 27, in Glassboro, N.J., for a doubleheader, with first pitch of game one scheduled for 11:30 a.m.
As NJCU and Rowan meet for two tomorrow, TCNJ also takes on #RV Montclair State University — also 8-8 in NJAC play. The Gothic Knights split with both the Lions and Red Hawks this season, so a sweep of Rowan, along with whatever the result for Montclair and TCNJ, will likely line up some tricky tiebreakers, which begin with head-to-head competition, followed by record versus common NJAC opponents, starting with the #1-ranked team down to the #10-ranked team until the tiebreaker is determined.
