Box Score

AUBURNDALE, Fla. (March 16, 2016) – The Rutgers University-Camden baseball team has been successfully negotiating a mine field of a schedule during its early-season games, but one of those powerhouse teams was able to outlast the Scarlet Raptors here Wednesday  at the RussMatt Central Florida Invitational.
 
Wheaton College of Norton, Massachusetts, used five pitchers to shut down the high-octane Scarlet Raptor offense, which had scored 49 runs in its previous three games, all against Top 25 opponents. The Lyons broke a 2-2 tie in the seventh inning and went on to edge Rutgers-Camden, 4-2.
 
The loss drops the Scarlet Raptors to 5-2 on the young season. Rutgers-Camden, which is ranked No. 19 in this week's American Baseball Coaches Association Division III poll and No. 22 in the D3baseball.com poll, has gone 3-2 in the early season against ranked teams and programs receiving votes toward the polls, including 1-1 against the two teams that played in last season's national championship game and were ranked No. 1 and No. 2 this season.
 
Wheaton College, which received 23 votes toward the ABCA poll this week, improves to 5-1.
 
The Lyons broke a 2-2 tie in the top of the seventh on a leadoff walk and a two-out triple to right field by senior right fielder Matt Lavanchy (Walpole, MA/Walpole). Wheaton tacked on an insurance run in the top of the ninth on a double by senior third baseman Justin Silvestro (Waltham, MA/BC High), a sacrifice and a sacrifice fly by junior left fielder Zachary Goodwin-Boyd (Florence, MA/Northampton).
 
Rutgers-Camden got the tying run to the plate in the bottom of the ninth after junior first baseman Frank Cerami IV (Lumberton, NJ/Rancocas Valley) drew a two-out walk, but the Lyons'  closer, senior Eric Dumas (Brookline, MA/Brookline) nailed down his fourth save with a strikeout.
 
Wheaton scored single runs in the first and third innings against Raptor senior starter Ryan Sullivan (Livingston, NJ/Livingston), who worked 4.2 innings and allowed 10 hits, two walks and two earned runs. He struck out two.
 
Rutgers-Camden came back to tie the game with a pair of runs in the bottom of the third. Cerami opened the frame with an infield single and was erased on a fielder's choice by freshman third baseman Ray Taylor (Collingswood, NJ/Collingswood). Junior center fielder Cory Kreamer (Philadelphia, PA/Father Judge) ripped a double down the left field line, chasing Taylor to third. Junior catcher Jon Theckston (Gloucester City, NJ/Gloucester Catholic) followed with his second single of the game and the 100th hit of his career, an RBI hit to left field. Kreamer, who reached third on the single, scored the tying run on a wild pitch.
 
Wheaton collected 13 hits off a trio of Raptor pitchers, including a 3-for-5 day with two RBIs by Lavanchy.
 
Theckston, Cerami and senior shortstop Joe Sigismondi (Blackwood, NJ/Highland Regional) each had two hits for the Scarlet Raptors.
 
Junior John Griffin (Swedesboro, NJ/Kingsway Regional) worked 3.1 innings of long relief for the Raptors, allowing only one hit and one walk, but took the loss when he surrendered the seventh-inning run. He struck out one.
 
The Scarlet Raptors return to RussMatt action Thursday when they face Trinity College (Hartford, Connecticut) at 3:30 p.m. in Winter Haven.