Box Score

UNION, N.J. (May 4, 2018) – With their backs to the wall and facing the prospect of a quick end to their trip to the double-elimination New Jersey Athletic Conference Baseball Championship tournament here Friday, the Rutgers University-Camden Scarlet Raptors pulled an ace from their sleeves.
 
That ace, senior right-hander Carter Fichter (Haddonfield, NJ/Haddonfield Memorial), trumped anything that top-seeded The College of New Jersey could offer.
 
Fichter hurled a six-hit gem, nearly collecting his second shutout of the season over the nationally-ranked Lions, to stave off elimination and keep the third-seeded Scarlet Raptors alive in the NJAC playoffs with a 3-1 victory. Rutgers-Camden (26-14), which lost its playoff opener Tuesday, will play a losers' bracket game on Saturday at 3:30 p.m. against Kean University, the host school for the weekend's action.
 
TCNJ, ranked No. 8 nationally in the ABCA/Collegiate Baseball NCAA Division III poll this week and No. 9 in the NCBWA/D3baseball.com rankings, falls to 28-8. The Lions drop into the losers' bracket, where they will play Saturday at 12 p.m. against the loser of tonight's Rowan vs. Ramapo game.
 
During the regular season, Rutgers-Camden was the only team in the NJAC to pin a pair of losses on TCNJ, which went 14-4 in conference play to win the regular-season championship. One of those wins was a 1-0 victory by Fichter with a six-hitter April 6 in Ewing. Fichter, pictured above, picked up on Friday where he left off during the regular season, extending his shutout string against the Lions to 17-1/3 innings before senior designated hitter Patrick Anderson touched him for a solo home run with one out in the ninth inning.
 
Fichter had to be sharp to win a pitching duel with TCNJ junior Michael Fischer. Both hurlers matched shutout ball until the eighth inning, when Rutgers-Camden collected three of its seven hits off Fischer to score all three runs.
 
Sophomore catcher Tyler Travis (Berlin, NJ/Eastern Regional) opened the frame with a single to left field and was sacrificed to second by freshman left fielder R.J. Concepcion (Audubon, NJ/Audubon). The Lions handed the Raptors' dangerous cleanup hitter, senior right fielder Brandon Cornelius (Sicklerville, NJ/Timber Creek) an intentional walk, but it just set the stage for another dangerous hitter in junior second baseman Chris Jones (Washington Township, NJ/Bishop Eustace Prep). Jones, who had already stretched his hitting streak to 14 games with a fourth-inning single, launched a RBI double to left center to break up the shutout bid. Sophomore shortstop Nolan Gerold (Merchantville, NJ/Camden Catholic) followed with a two-run double down the right field line.
 
Given a three-run cushion, Fichter finished his gem in the ninth inning, notching a strikeout before Anderson's solo home run and nailing down his complete game with a pair of grounders to Jones at second base. Fichter walked two and struck out four in his six-hitter, while raising his record to 7-2. He lowered his ERA to 1.30 and took over the team lead in innings with 69-1/3. In that span he has struck out 55 and walked only 14.
 
Fichter, who earned NJAC Honorable Mention when the all-conference teams were announced this week, tied Ed Gregory (1969-72) for third place on the program's career list with his 15th win and now owns 177 innings pitched in his four-year Raptor career, 10th in program history.
 
Jones, meanwhile, was the lone Raptor with multiple hits, going 2-for-3 with one run and one RBI. His double was the 33rd of his career, tying him with Connor Hall (2012-15) for seventh on the program's all-time list.