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WAYNE, N.J. (April 14, 2017) – Freshman JC Ball singled home junior Brian Boulineau with two outs in the bottom of the eighth inning and sophomore flamethrower Luis Rojas slammed the door as the Rutgers University-Newark baseball team improved to 6-2 in the New Jersey Athletic Conference with a 5-4 win at William Paterson University Friday evening.
 
Rutgers-Newark has won its last six NJAC games and improves to 17-6-1 overall, while Paterson drops to 5-3 in the league and 12-11-2 overall. The Scarlet Raiders return to action Saturday with a conference doubleheader at Rowan University starting at 11:30 a.m.
 
With the game tied at four entering the bottom of the eighth inning, Boulineau led off the inning with a single. Junior right fielder Adam Tricarico advanced the runner with a sacrifice bunt, and after a groundout, Ball came through with the game-winning single to left.
 
"JC (Ball) is playing at a high-level right now," said Head Coach Mark Rizzi after the win. "His confidence is high, and today he had great at-bats, jumping on the first pitch to knock in the winning run in the eighth inning."
 
After Ball gave the Scarlet Raiders the lead in the eighth, Rojas made quick work of the Pioneers in the ninth, erasing a one-out walk with a game-ending double play for his fifth save of the season.
 
"This week was definitely a grind but our guys are relentless," added Rizzi. "There is never a down time in the dugout, they have a great deal of confidence in each other and never think they are going to lose. We are going to Rowan tomorrow with a lot of confidence."
 
Junior Yanni Vayas picked up the win for Rutgers-Newark, tossing one inning of scoreless relief to move to 1-0 on the season. Sophomore Anthony Rosoline started for the Raiders, going seven innings and allowing four runs on seven hits. The seven innings were key for the Raiders after two high-scoring battles with 11th-ranked Alvernia University earlier in the week.
 
Paterson – who hosted the game but played as the 'visitor' – jumped in front with two runs in the second. The Scarlet Raiders responded in the form of senior left fielder Josh Cote who blasted a two-run homer to left-center to tie the game at two in the bottom of the third. It was his team-high third long ball of the year.
 
A Ball single in the sixth gave Rutgers-Newark a 3-2 lead, and a double from sophomore shortstop Ryan Zucker later in the inning pushed the margin to two (4-2).
 
Paterson tied it in the top half of the eighth, setting the stage for Ball's heroics.
 
Rutgers-Newark finished the game with eight hits, getting two from Ball, Boulineau and Zucker. Ball had two RBI, as did Cote thanks to his homer, with Zucker, Cote, Boulineau (two) and Ball scoring the Rutgers-Newark runs.
 
Freshman Carlos Perez went 3-for-3 with a walk, run scored and RBI to lead the Pioneers.
 
Three-Pointers
-Rutgers-Newark has surpassed its overall win total from 2016 by two wins with 16 games left to play.
-JC Ball has a five-game hitting streak and has multiple hits in all five games.
-The Scarlet Raiders have gone 7-1-1 over their last nine games.

??Final! JC Ball delivers game-winning single in 8th to lift @RURaiderbasebal to 5-4 #RUNwins at WPU. R-N now 6-2 in @NJACSports #d3b ???????? pic.twitter.com/y1G7LgM4F7

— Scarlet Raiders (@ScarletRaiders) April 14, 2017