Box Score CAMDEN, N.J. (March 30, 2016) – After rolling up 130 runs while winning 10 of their first 12 games, the bats have suddenly hit a cold spell for the nationally-ranked Rutgers University-Camden baseball team.
The Scarlet Raptors collected only five hits off five pitchers here Wednesday as they lost to Fairleigh Dickinson University-Florham, 5-1, in a non-conference game.
Rutgers-Camden, ranked No. 8 in the ABCA Division III Coaches' Poll and No. 10 in the
D3baseball.com Top 25, falls to 10-4 with its second consecutive loss. The Scarlet Raptors also dropped a 4-0 home game against Stevens Institute of Technology Tuesday.
Junior righty
Tyler Keefe (Roxbury, NJ/Roxbury) held the Scarlet Raptors to four hits and one run over the first five innings as he earned his first decision of the season, and a quartet of Devils hurlers blanked Rutgers-Camden on one hit over the final four frames.
FDU-Florham, which improves to 6-11-1, scored all the runs Keefe needed in a three-run third inning, which featured two walks, three hits and an error. Senior rightfielder
Vinny Bonaccorso (Toms River, NJ/Ocean County College) and senior shortstop
Bryan Pieschel (Stamford, CT/Westhill) both had RBI singles in the inning.
The Devils added another run in the fifth against Raptor junior starter
Andrew Biggs (Millville, NJ/Millville). Vinny Bonaccorso hit a one-out double and scored on a two-out single by Pieschel.
Biggs (0-1) worked five innings, allowing five hits, five walks and four runs, three of them earned. He struck out one. Senior
Ryan Sullivan (Livingston, NJ/Livingston) worked the final four innings for the Scarlet Raptors, allowing three hits, three walks and one earned run, while striking out two.
The Raptors' lone run came in the bottom of the fifth inning following a leadoff triple by freshman third baseman
Ray Taylor (Collingswood, NJ/Collingswood). He came home to score on the next batter as junior centerfielder
Zach Ellin (Marlton, NJ/Cherokee) picked up an RBI while reaching base on an infield error.
FDU-Florham tacked on its final run in the seventh inning when Pieschel walked, stole second and scored on a single by sophomore first baseman
Christopher Franco (Wayne, NJ/Wayne Hills). Vinny Bonaccorso and Pieschel had two hits apiece to power the eight-hit FDU-Florham attack. Junior leftfielder
Joe Brooks (Blackwood, NJ/Gloucester Catholic) went 2-for-3 as the lone Raptor to get two hits. Three of Rutgers-Camden's five hits went for extra bases, with a triple by Taylor and doubles by Brooks and junior designated hitter
Andujar Cedeno (Bronx, NY/Escuela Nueva Esperanza, DR). FDU-Florham plays a 3:30 p.m. MAC Freedom game at Eastern University Friday.
Rutgers-Camden begins its New Jersey Athletic Conference schedule Saturday when it hosts William Paterson University for an 11:30 a.m. doubleheader.
