Box Score CAMDEN, N.J. (March 2, 2016) – On a day when the wind blowing off the Delaware River made the temperatures in the 40's feel even colder at Campbell's Field, the calendar said it was time for the Rutgers University-Camden baseball team to open its 2016 season.
Chris Jones went 2-for-4 in his Rutgers-Camden debut Scarlet Raptors' senior
Billy Jackson (Estell Manor, NJ/Buena Regional) put a chill in the bats of opposing Penn State-Abington over his six innings of work and Rutgers-Camden took advantage of 12 walks, seven hits and three hit batsmen as it defeated the Nittany Lions, 10-3, her Wednesday.
Jackson allowed only two hits and one unearned run over six innings, striking out four, as he picked up where he left off during his stellar junior season in 2015. Last season, in his first year at Rutgers-Camden, he posted a 6-1 record and a 2.38 ERA on the way to earning NJCBA Div. II/III First Team honors.
Penn State-Abington, which fell to 0-4, used eight different pitchers for one inning apiece as it tuned up for a spring trip to Puerto Rico, looking to thaw out and earn its first victory.
Rutgers-Camden took the lead for good with an unearned run in the second inning off Nittany Lions junior
Don Halbruner (Southampton, PA/William Tennent), who was saddled with the loss. Senior second baseman
Brett Tenuto (Audubon, NJ/Gloucester Catholic) led off the frame reaching on an error and advanced to when junior first baseman
Frank Cerami IV (Lumberton, NJ/Rancocas Valley) drew a walk. Both runners advanced on a topper to the mound by freshman third baseman
Ray Taylor (Collingswood, NJ/Collingswood), and junior center fielder
Cory Kreamer (Philadelphia, PA/Father Judge) delivered Tenuto with a sacrifice fly to center.
Bundled up against the cold, Andrew Biggs
throws a pitch in his first Scarlet Raptor game. Rutgers-Camden added four runs in the third inning, aided by three walks, a hit batsman and RBI singles by freshman shortstop
Chris Jones (Washington Township, NJ/Bishop Eustace Prep) and Kreamer. Tenuto had an RBI walk in the frame, while Cerami plated a run on a fielder's choice.
A fourth-inning run scored on a double play ball and the Scarlet Raptors broke the game open with four more runs in the eighth inning, which included an RBI double by junior left fielder
Joe Brooks (Blackwood, NJ/Gloucester Catholic), a run-scoring walk to Cerami and a two-out bloop single behind shortstop by Taylor that plated two runs.
Jackson, meanwhile, opened the season with 2-1/3 perfect innings before allowing a double by Abington sophomore third baseman
Pat Fitzgerald (Warrington, PA/Central Bucks South). The only other hit he allowed was a two-out RBI single in the sixth by freshman catcher
Max Perilstein (Cheltenham, PA/Cheltenham), plating a runner that reached on an error.
The Raptors closed out the game with one inning apiece from senior
Chris Scarlett (Galloway, NJ/Absegami), junior
Andrew Biggs (Millville, NJ/Millville) and senior
Kyle Gaff (Gloucester City, NJ/Gloucester City). Scarlet and Biggs allowed one run apiece, while Gaff surrendered only one hit in his shutout frame.
Offensively, Jones went 2-for-4 with one run and one RBI for the Raptors, while Brooks was 1-for-3 with three runs and one RBI. Cerami, Taylor and Kreamer all had two RBIs apiece.
Rutgers-Camden is scheduled to host The College at Brockport in another non-conference game, Saturday at 1:30 p.m.
