UNION, NJ | The Rutgers-Newark baseball team split with Kean University in its final pair of games on Saturday afternoon, 4-3 and 10-9, both of which went extra innings. The Scarlet Raiders end the season with a 19-19, 4-14 while Kean will continue on in the NJAC Playoffs with a record of 26-13, 12-6.
Game 1: Rutgers-Newark 4, Kean 3 (11 inn.)
Kean opened the game with a run in the bottom of the frame with an RBI double down the left-field line. After that run the game would become dormant until the top of the seventh when the Scarlet Raiders scored three runs to take a late lead. Paul Recchia scored Matthew Storch with a single up the middle. Evensen would then follow up with a sacrifice bunt RBI to set up Devin Rojas to score another run with a bunt to the pitcher.
The Cougars knotted the game up in the following inning to push the game into free baseball territory where the Scarlet Raiders would secure the victory in the top of the eleventh. The freshman catcher, Rojas, would single through the left side to score Paul Recchia who reached earlier on a single to right center. Vince Taylor came in to close the game out and struck out a pair of batters to secure the win.
Game 2: Kean 10, Rutgers-Newark 9 (14 inn.)
Kean got ahead early in game two, scoring four runs over the opening three frames. An RBI double by Daniel Fedorco opened the scoring ledger for the Scarlet Raiders and was later capped by a pair of RBI walks by Storch and Robert Gonzalez.
The Scarlet Raiders added four more runs over the next three innings to take a brief lead before Kean tied the game up once again with four runs in the bottom of the eighth. Ethan Calcano collected an RBI when he singled to left field and scored Ricky Gonzalez. The lead didn't last long as Kean responded with a run of their own before hitting a walk-off sacrifice fly in the bottom of the fourteenth to split the NJAC doubleheader.
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