POMONA, NJ – Rutgers-Newark rode the pitching of Jack Winters to a 5-1 win in the opening game of a New Jersey Athletic Conference doubleheader split against Richard Stockton. 

NCAA Box Scores & Play-by-Play
R-N 5,  RSC 1     RSC 12, R-N 6

The Scarlet Raiders (18-13, NJAC 6-8) fell in the nightcap, 12-6, to draw into a sixth-place tie with Ramapo, which lost twice to Kean today in Union, in the battle for one of six conference championship tournament berths entering the final week of the season. 

Junior designated hitter Anthony Yeswita, who went seven four 10 on the day, collected four hits with a pair of doubles in game one while sophomore shortstop Patrick Reitemeyer was three for five. 

Winters (2-3) went 6-2/3 innings, scattering six hits while striking out two and walking five, yielding only one run on a fifth-inning home run to Marc Asta. Senior Robert Falk provided 1-1/3 innings of one-hit, shutout relief before junior closer Michael Hansen got the final three outs after giving up a lead-off single in the ninth. 

Senior catcher Gerard Russomanno and sophomore centerfielder Michael DiCenso keyed two-run rallies in the fourth and eighth innings for the Raiders. The duo had back-to-back RBI singles in the fourth. In the eighth, Russomanno delivered a bases-loaded sacrifice fly to centerfield before DiCenso singled to make it 4-1. 

Reitemeyer singled and Yeswita doubled him home in the top of the ninth to add an insurance run.
In game two, Yeswita and Russomanno collected three hits apiece, but the Ospreys broke a seven-game losing streak by out-hitting the Raiders, 17-14. Yeswita added his third double of the day to push his season total to 11. 

Sophomore second baseman Matt Connors, senior rightfielder Brian Gill and freshman leftfielder Chris Ballester had two hits and an RBI apiece while DiCenso, despite going hitless, score three times in the game. 

The Raiders host Alvernia in Bears & Eagles Riverfront Stadium on Monday at 3:30 p.m. and travel to Staten Island on Wednesday for a pair of non-conference contests before capping their NJAC regular season. Rutgers-Newark visits New Jersey City on Thursday and hosts Kean on Senior Day in the stadium on Friday before taking on Ramapo in a Saturday doubleheader. 

Rutgers-Newark equalled its win total of 2008 (18-19-1) with the victory in game one and has seven games left in its regular season.