Box Score

OWINGS MILLS, Md. (March 4, 2018) – It didn't take long for the Rutgers University-Camden baseball team to warm up its offense during a season-opening trip to Maryland this weekend.
 
For the second straight game, the Scarlet Raptors exploded for double-digit hits and runs here Sunday as they defeated Stevenson University, 14-9, behind a 15-hit attack. After losing their season opener, 5-2, against the nation's top-ranked team, Cortland State, on Saturday morning in Baltimore, the Scarlet Raptors ripped 14 hits that afternoon in an 11-2 romp over seventh-ranked Johns Hopkins University.
 
The offensive display continued Sunday at Stevenson University when Rutgers-Camden turned an early 2-1 deficit completely around with back-to-back three-run innings in the fifth and sixth before sending 12 men to the plate in a seven-run eighth inning.
 
Rutgers-Camden took a brief 1-0 lead in the top of the first inning after freshman left fielder R.J. Concepcion (Audubon, NJ/Audubon) opened the game with a single, advanced on a bunt single by sophomore catcher Tyler Travis (Berlin, NJ/Eastern Regional) and scored on a single by when junior second baseman Chris Jones (Washington Township, NJ/Bishop Eustace Prep).
 
Stevenson, however, countered with two runs in the bottom of the frame on two hits, an error and a walk against eventual winning pitcher Drew Zytko (Brick, NJ/Brick Memorial). Zytko, a southpaw making his Rutgers-Camden debut after two seasons at Ocean County College, worked six innings, scattering nine hits and two walks. He allowed the two first-inning runs – one of them unearned --- and struck out two.
 
Rutgers-Camden's bats came alive in the fifth inning and soon turned a close game into a romp. A three-run fifth included a game-tying RBI single by sophomore center fielder John Tedeschi (Haddonfield, NJ/Haddonfield Memorial) and a two-out, two-run error on a ball hit by Jones.
 
In the sixth inning, two walks, a hit batsman, two bunt singles and two Mustang errors produced three more runs. Leading, 7-2, the Raptors blew the game wide open in the eighth, taking advantage of five hits, one error and three walks to plate seven runs. The biggest hit in the frame was a two-run pinch-hit single from sophomore Wayne Jackson (Sicklerville, NJ/Winslow Township).
 
Stevenson made the score a lot more deceptive, scoring seven times in the bottom of the ninth on two hits, one walk, one hit batsman and three Scarlet Raptor errors. Five of the runs were unearned.
 
Tedeschi, pictured above, led the Raptors' attack, going 3-for-4 with two runs and two RBIs. Sophomore shortstop Nolan Gerold (Merchantville, NJ/Camden Catholic) went 2-for-3 with one run and two RBIs, Travis was 2-for-4 with two runs and Jones went 2-for-5 with one run and one RBI.
 
Rutgers-Camden is scheduled to play a 2:30 p.m. non-conference game Wednesday at York College of Pennsylvania.