Box Score

NEWARK, N.Y. – The Rutgers University-Camden baseball team exhibited tremendous heart and a tremendous heart of the order here Thursday morning in the losers' bracket of the NCAA Division III Baseball Newark, New York Regional.
 As a result, the Scarlet Raptors collected the first NCAA tourney win in program history, became only the second Rutgers-Camden baseball team to reach 30 wins and lived to play another day in the regional tournament.

In a game that featured 29 runs, 38 hits, 12 walks and saw the fourth-seeded Scarlet Raptors blow an early seven-run lead, Rutgers-Camden bounced back to eliminate eighth-seeded Castleton State College, 18-11.

The victory lifts the Raptors to 30-12-1, making them only the second team in program history to reach the 30-victory plateau. The 2002 team went 32-10.  

Rutgers-Camden, ranked No. 29 nationally in the ABCA/Collegiate Baseball NCAA Division III poll, will play another game Friday at 1:15 p.m. against the loser of tonight's Amherst College/Kean University game.
 The Scarlet Raptors had to do things the hard way Thursday. After building a 7-0 lead midway through the second inning, they watched the Spartans (29-12) storm back with seven runs in the bottom of the second to tie the game. The Vermont school took an 8-7 lead with a run in the bottom of the third before the Raptors took the lead for good with three runs in the fourth inning on back-to-back home runs by senior rightfielder Adrian Gonzalez (Pennsauken, NJ/Pennsauken) and junior first baseman Connor Hall (Delran, NJ/Delran).

Gonzalez and Hall, the Raptors' third and fourth hitters, combined to go 8-for-9 with six runs, 11 RBIs, three walks and 17 total bases. Gonzalez went 5-for-5 with a walk, two doubles, hit sixth home run of the year and six RBIs. He fell only one hit and three RBIs shy of the single-game program records, and was walked his last time up in the eighth inning. He was on deck when the Raptors were retired in the top of the ninth.

Hall, meanwhile, went 3-for-4 with two runs, two walks, two doubles, a home run and five RBIs. The fourth-inning home run was his ninth of the season, tying the program's single-season mark set by Brian Murphy in 2001.

Gonzalez also increased his single-season program record to 53 RBIs, but Hall remained right behind him with 51. Both players also have 14 doubles now, two shy of the single-season mark that Gonzalez tied last season.
 Castleton State, however, stunned the Raptors with a seven-run second to tie the game, aided by five hits, a walk and a hit batsman. The big blow was a three-run game-tying homer by senior first baseman Joe Borowski (Schenectady, NY/Schenectady).
 Two more hits, a sacrifice and an error gave the Spartans the lead in the bottom of the third. Freshman shortstop Soren Pelz-Walsh (Dummerston, VT/Brattleboro) put Castleton State ahead with a RBI single.

Rutgers-Camden regained the lead for good in the fourth when Brooks doubled and Gonzalez drilled a home run to center field. Moments later, Hall tied the season record with a solo shot to right-center.
 
Gonzalez added a RBI double in the fifth and a two-run double in the Raptors' three-run seventh, which included a RBI single from freshman leftfielder Brandon Cornelius (Sicklerville, NJ/Timber Creek). Hall had a two-run double in a three-run eighth.

Senior Ryan Martin (Cherry Hill, NJ/Cherry Hill East), who hadn't pitched in a game since suffering an injury April 12 against William Paterson University, entered the contest in the third inning to relieve freshman starter Harry Sturgis (West Deptford, NJ/West Deptford). Martin (2-3) picked up the win, working 4.2 innings and allowing four hits and one earned run. He struck out five and didn't walk a batter.

Junior centerfielder Tyler Lord (South Burlington, VT/South Burlington) went 4-for-6 with two runs and one RBI to pace the Spartans' attack.