UNION, N.J. (March 21, 2021) – The Rutgers University-Camden baseball team was down to its last out, trailing by two runs in the top of the ninth inning and still looking for its first victory in the opening game of a doubleheader here Saturday.
 
Two hits, a walk, an error and a wild pitch later, the Scarlet Raptors tied the game and they went on to pull out a 6-4, 11-inning win against 14th-ranked Kean University for their first win of the season. In the nightcap, the Raptors again rallied to tie the game in the top of the ninth, but this time they lost, 6-5, on an unearned run in the bottom of the 11th inning.
 
The results, which don't count in the New Jersey Athletic Conference standings, leave the Scarlet Raptors at 1-5, while Kean stands at 5-4.
 
The Scarlet Raptors open the NJAC part of their schedule on Saturday, April 3, with an 11:30 a.m. doubleheader at William Paterson University.
   
Trailing, 4-2, with two outs and nobody on base in the top of the ninth inning, senior center fielder Billy Eisler kept the inning alive with a single up the middle. It was the fourth hit in a huge 5-for-6 game for Eisler, which included one double, two runs scored and one RBI.
 
A walk to junior catcher Jesse Gerdes and an RBI single by junior right fielder Brett Yurgin, coupled with an infield error, scored Eisler and put runners at the corners. Gerdes scored the tying run on a wild pitch.
 
The Scarlet Raptors won the game in the 11th, sparked by a leadoff single from Eisler. Gerdes went all the way to third base when his sacrifice bunt was thrown away, allowing Eisler to score from first base. Yurgin followed with a run-scoring double.
 
The late-game heroics made a winner out of junior Stephen Brady (1-1), the Raptors' third hurler who worked three scoreless innings, allowing one hit and three walks, while striking out four.
 
Kean had broken a 1-1 tie with three runs in the bottom of the seventh inning on one hit, four walks, a hit batsman and a sacrifice fly. The Raptors, who had tied the game earlier in the seventh on a RBI single by Eisler, made it a 4-2 game with a run in the top of the eighth inning on an infield error and a RBI double by senior left fielder R.J. Concepcion. It was the 100th hit of Concepcion's career, making him the 37th player in program history to reach the century mark.
 
The early part of the game was a stellar pitching duel between Raptor junior Colin Carr and Kean southpaw Kevin Stewart. The game was scoreless until the Cougars pushed across a run in the bottom of the sixth on a RBI single by junior catcher Phil Marcantonio.
 
In addition to five hits from Eisler, the Raptors' 11-hit attack also received two hits from Yurgin.
Marcantonio had two of the six hits for the Cougars.
   
In the nightcap, Kean bounced back to pull out the victory after the Scarlet Raptors again tied the game in the ninth inning. This time the Cougars scored the winning run in the 11th after an error allowed junior center fielder Philip Mahlik to reach base leading off the inning. A sacrifice, an intentional walk, a wild pitch, a line out and another intentional walk loaded the bases, bringing up freshman Dren Gocaj to pinch hit. Gocaj drew a walk to force home the winning run.
 
Kean scored three times in the sixth inning on three hits and three walks, breaking a 2-2 tie. The Scarlet Raptors cut their deficit to 5-4 with two runs in the eighth inning, sparked by a leadoff single from sophomore second baseman Danny Vazquez and a double by Eisler. Back-to-back ground outs by Gerdes and Yurgin plated the runs.
 
Rutgers-Camden tied the game in the ninth inning when Concepcion opened the frame with a single and was sacrificed to second by freshman catcher Nick Sylvester. After a wild pitch, senior left fielder Rob Scanlan delivered a game-tying sacrifice fly.
 
Both teams had scored a pair of runs in the second inning, which included a two-run single by Gerdes for the Scarlet Raptors.
 
Eisler went 3-for-4 with one run in the nightcap, Vazquez was 2-for-4 with two runs and Gerdes had one hit and three RBIs. For Kean, Mahlik went 3-for-5 with two runs.
 
Eisler hit a torrid 8-for-10 (.800) with 10 total bases, three runs, two doubles, one HBP and one RBI on the day, while also notching five putouts in as many attempts. He had an .818 on-base percentage and a 1.000 slugging percentage in the doubleheader. That performance raised his early-season batting average from .188 to a team-leading .423.