Box Score

AUBURNDALE, Fla. (March 17, 2018) – Early in its spring break trip to the RussMatt Central Florida Invitational, the  Rutgers University-Camden baseball team dropped a 6-5 decision against Beloit College to start a four-game losing streak.
 
The Scarlet Raptors evened the score against the Buccaneers here Saturday morning as they closed out their southern trip with a 7-2 win over Beloit.
 
Junior southpaw Steve Bloyed (North Brunswick, NJ/North Brunswick) worked eight strong innings to earn his first victory of the year and senior right fielder Brandon Cornelius (Sicklerville, NJ/Timber Creek) collected five RBIs, four of them on a first-inning grand slam, to lead the Raptors.
 
Rutgers-Camden returns home with a 6-5 record after going 4-4 on its trip to the RussMatt Invitational. The Scarlet Raptors bookended their four-game losing streak down south with a pair of trip-opening and trip-closing wins.
 
Rutgers-Camden will open its home season Wednesday, weather permitting, when it hosts FDU-Florham at 3:30 p.m.
 
After Bloyed worked out of a first-inning jam created by a pair of errors, the Raptor offense went to work in the bottom of the first. Consecutive singles by freshman center fielder Billy Eisler (Pennsauken, NJ/Camden Catholic), sophomore catcher Travis Tyler (Berlin, NJ/Eastern) and freshman designated hitter R.J. Concepcion (Audubon, NJ/Audubon) loaded the bases with nobody out. One out later, junior second baseman Chris Jones (Washington Township, NJ/Bishop Eustace Prep) singled home a pair of runs and sophomore shortstop Nolan Gerold (Merchantville, NJ/Camden Catholic) followed with a walk to load the bases.
 
Cornelius unloaded a grand slam to left field for his fourth home run of the season and his third in his last three games. His grand slam was the first for the Scarlet Raptors since May 8, 2015, when Bobby Romano hit one in the sixth inning against Salisbury University.
 
Cornelius, pictured above, added his final RBI on a bases-loaded walk in the fifth inning.
 
Beloit scored both of its runs in the second inning, collecting four of their total seven hits in the game against Bloyed. The Raptor lefty was in control the rest of the way as he finished with four strikeouts and no walks in his eight-inning stint to even his record at 1-1.
 
Sophomore righty Daniel Beebe (Berlin, NJ/Eastern Regional) finished up the game with a strong ninth inning, collecting three strikeouts while working around a two-out error.
 
In addition to five RBIs from Cornelius, Jones went 3-for-4 with one run and two RBIs. Eisler, Travis and Concepcion collected two hits apiece to set the table at the top of the Raptor lineup. Travis extended his season-opening hitting streak to 11 games.