Box Score

CAMDEN, N.J. – Figuring out the seedings for the upcoming New Jersey Athletic Conference baseball playoffs is even more difficult than it was scoring runs during Friday's NJAC marathon at Campbell's Field, and that task proved tough enough.
 
It took 12 innings Friday before Montclair State University outlasted Rutgers University-Camden, 3-2, in a three-hour marathon that included 24 hits, but only five runs, two of them unearned.
 
That result only further complicated the possibilities for the six-team NJAC playoffs, which begin Tuesday at the home of the three highest seeds. With their loss, the Scarlet Raptors fell into a tie for first place with Kean University, which visits Campbell's Field Saturday at 11:30 a.m. for a doubleheader to close the NJAC regular season. Rutgers-Camden and Kean both own 12-4 conference records entering Saturday, but are only one game ahead of Ramapo and Rowan, who play a NJAC twinbill Saturday in Glassboro. Montclair State, meanwhile, sits in fifth place with a 9-7 NJAC record, one game ahead of The College of New Jersey, the team it hosts for a Saturday doubleheader.
 
The jumbled picture was made possible, in part, by the Red Hawks' extra-inning win, which dropped the Raptors into a tie with Kean, which beat Rowan on Friday. Montclair State (16-15 overall) packed five hits into the decisive 12th inning, including a RBI single through the left side of the infield by junior left fielder Keith Murphy (Point Pleasant, NJ/Point Pleasant Boro), which plated sophomore second baseman Matt Long (Washington Township, NJ/Washington Township) with the winning run. Long had opened the rally with a one-out single, the first of five consecutive Red Hawk hits. Only the play of Raptor senior center fielder Bobby Romano (Vineland, NJ/Vineland) kept the game close, as he threw out runners at the plate on back-to-back singles to end the inning.
 
Rutgers-Camden (18-14 overall), however, couldn't rally in the bottom of the frame against freshman closer Austin Minton (Roebling, NJ/Florence), who picked up his fourth save of the season. He allowed a one-out single to Raptor sophomore shortstop Pedro Perez (Burlington, NJ/Burlington City), but Perez was thrown out on a steal attempt to end the game.
 
The contest featured stellar starting pitching, and a couple of wasted opportunities, by both teams. Raptor junior Ryan Sullivan (Livingston, NJ/Livingston) worked nine innings, allowing nine hits, one walk and two runs, one of them unearned. Sullivan struck out five and wriggled out of bases-loaded jams in both the third and seventh innings.
 
Montclair State junior Michael Macchia (Middletown, NJ/Middletown North) also allowed only one earned run out of the two charged against him. He worked 8.1 innings of six-hit ball, striking out six without walking a batter, and pulled a big Houdini act in the sixth inning when the Raptors loaded the bases with no outs, only to come away with nothing. A comebacker to the mound produced a force out at home before Macchia fanned the next two hitters.
 
Rutgers-Camden scored a first-inning run after junior third baseman Brett Tenuto (Audubon, NJ/Gloucester Catholic) led off with a double. He went to third on a bunt single by sophomore catcher Jon Theckston (Gloucester City, NJ/Gloucester Catholic) and scored on a sacrifice fly by Romano.
 
Montclair State tied the game in the sixth on an unearned run, aided by two infield errors, and took the lead in the seventh on three hits, including a RBI single by sophomore right fielder Ryan Long (Washington Township, NJ/Washington Township).
 
Rutgers-Camden tied the game in the eighth when Tenuto doubled, advanced to third on a passed ball and scored an unearned run on a ground out.
 
Senior Anthony Altieri (Montville, NJ/Montville) picked up the win, working 2.2 innings of one-hit shutout relief, to raise his record to 3-0.
 
Raptor junior Kyle Gaff (Gloucester City, NJ/Gloucester City) took the loss in three innings of work. Gaff (0-2), who stayed in the game despite taking a line drive off the leg to open his second inning of work, allowed seven hits and one earned run, while fanning five.
 
Murphy went 4-for-6 to lead the 16-hit Montclair State attack. Tenuto was 3-for-5 with two runs for the Raptors, while Theckston went 2-for-5.