NEWARK, NJ – The Scarlet Raiders dropped a pair of games against The College of New Jersey on Saturday.
Game 1: Rutgers-Newark 2, TCNJ 20
In the first game of the doubleheader, TCNJ jumped out to a commanding start in the first inning, putting up five runs, highlighted by a grand slam from Ryan Goodall that set the tone for the rest of the game. They continued to pile on, adding a run in the second, three more in the fifth, and exploding for eight runs in the sixth inning. By the seventh, the Lions had stretched their lead to 20-0 after tacking on three more runs. Despite the deficit, Rutgers-Newark showed resilience, managing to score their first run in the bottom of the fifth and another in the eighth. Although it was a challenging start for the Scarlet Raiders, their late-game efforts reflected determination against a red-hot TCNJ lineup.
Game 2: Rutgers-Newark 2, TCNJ 6
The Scarlet Raiders tried to bounce back in a closely contested second game taking it to extra innings. TCNJ got on the board first in the third inning with an RBI single from Gianni Marano that drove in Mike LaGravenis. Rutgers-Newark answered in the fifth, as catcher
Devin Rojas delivered a clutch two-run single, scoring
Gilroy Prial and
Daniel Fedorco to give the Scarlet Raiders a 2-1 lead. The Lions tied it up in the ninth when Andrew Fernandez crossed the plate on a wild pitch, forcing extra innings.
The decisive blow came in the 11th inning, when TCNJ broke the tie with a bases-loaded walk drawn by Marano, followed by a three-run double from Ryan Goodall that sealed the win. For Rutgers-Newark, Rojas went 2-for-4 with both RBIs, and starter
Joey Santi was charged with the loss, dropping to 1-3.
