Box Score

WINTER HAVEN, Fla. (March 17, 2016) – Junior right-hander Zach Welsher (Audubon, NJ/Audubon) worked 5.2 strong innings to earn his first collegiate decision and the Rutgers University-Camden baseball team ripped 14 hits as it defeated Trinity College (Hartford, Connecticut), 9-4, here Thursday at the RussMatt Central Florida Invitational.
 

Rutgers-Camden, ranked No. 19 in the ABCA poll and No. 25 in the D3baseball.com Top 25, improves to 6-2 overall and 3-2 against its rugged schedule during spring break, which features seven of its eight games against teams ranked or receiving votes in the national polls.
 
Trinity, the lone southern trip opponent not appearing in the polls, falls to 3-4.
 
Welsher allowed four hits, four walks and two earned runs in his 5.2 innings. He struck out five to pick up his first collegiate win.
 
Offensively, the Scarlet Raptors pounded out double-digit hits for the sixth time in the last seven games. Five players collected two hits apiece: junior right fielder Zach Ellin (Marlton, NJ/Cherokee), junior catcher Jon Theckston (Gloucester City, NJ/Gloucester Catholic), junior left fielder Joe Brooks (Blackwood, NJ/Gloucester Catholic), senior shortstop Joe Sigismondi (Blackwood, NJ/Highland Regional) and senior third baseman Billy Jackson (Estell Manor, NJ/Buena Regional). Theckston and Brooks have hit safely in all eight games so far this season.
 
Rutgers-Camden took the lead for good with two runs in the third inning, sparked when Ellin reached on an error and was chased to third by a Theckston double. A ground out by Brooks plated Ellin and moved Theckston to third. Theckston scored on a sacrifice fly by senior second baseman Brett Tenuto (Audubon, NJ/Gloucester Catholic), who went 1-for-4 in the game to run his hitting streak to seven games.
 
The Raptors added a run in the fourth son a two-out infield single by junior first baseman Frank Cerami IV (Lumberton, NJ/Rancocas Valley), a stolen base and an RBI single by Jackson. After Trinity got that run back in the bottom of the frame, the teams matched single runs in the fifth. The Raptors' run scored on a run-scoring single by junior center fielder Cory Kreamer (Philadelphia, PA/Father Judge).
 
A two-run single by Sigismondi and a run-scoring hit by Theckston highlighted Rutgers-Camden's three-run sixth inning, and the Raptors closed out the game with two ninth-inning runs. Jackson had a two-run triple in that frame as he finished the day with three RBIs.
 
Trinity scored its final two runs in the bottom of the ninth.
 
The Scarlet Raptors return to RussMatt action Friday with a doubleheader against Wisconsin-Stevens Point, beginning at 3 p.m. in Auburndale. The Pointers are ranked No. 10 in the latest ABCA poll and No. 13 in this week's D3baseball.com Top 25 poll.