CAMDEN, N.J. (April 22, 2023) – The Rutgers University-Camden and William Paterson University baseball teams turned their New Jersey Athletic Conference doubleheader into an offensive highlight reel here Saturday.
 
After 18 innings that featured 54 runs and 23 extra-base hits among 65 total hits, the Scarlet Raptors and the Pioneers came away with a split.
 
Rutgers-Camden captured the opener, 16-4, and William Paterson outslugged the Raptors for a 21-13 win in the nightcap.
 
The split leaves Rutgers-Camden at 21-14 overall and 7-7 in the NJAC, while Paterson is 20-13 overall and 8-6 in the NJAC. Rutgers-Camden is tied for fifth place with Ramapo and The College of New Jersey.
 
Rutgers-Camden returns to play Tuesday with a 3:30 p.m. non-conference game at Alvernia University.
   
After allowing three runs in the first inning, Raptor senior Ethan Carpenter hurled shutout ball the rest of his six-inning stint as he raised his record to 5-2. He allowed seven hits, two walks and only two earned runs, while striking out three.
 
The Scarlet Raptor offense did the rest. The Raptors tied the game on four hits in the bottom of the second inning and exploded for five runs in the fifth, highlighted by a two-run single from senior designated hitter Jack Murphy.
 
Rutgers-Camden added four runs on one big shot in the sixth inning when sophomore first baseman Diego Salazar unloaded a grand slam to right-center field. It was the first grand slam for Rutgers-Camden in exactly two years, as Brett Yurgin hit one in the third inning against Stockton on April 22, 2021.
 
Salazar finished the game 1-for-2, adding a sacrifice fly, and was hit by a pitch twice. He collected five RBIs.
 
Rutgers-Camden had 19 hits in the game, with freshman right fielder Jacob Watson, sophomore left fielder Frankie Romond and senior catcher Jake Guglielmi notching three hits apiece. Guglielmi and Murphy both had three RBIs.
 
The Raptor' win snapped a 10-game losing streak against the Pioneers, dating back to their last win in the opener of a doubleheader on March 30, 2019, when they won 6-3 at Paterson.
   
While the first game featured 29 hits, the second game saw 36 hits and 34 runs. When the dust cleared, it was the Pioneers on top, led by a massive game from graduate catcher Steve Yelin, who went 5-for-6 with two home runs, two doubles, five runs scored and seven RBIs.
 
Another Paterson grad student, second baseman Colin Lombardo, also scored five runs while going 4-for-6 with two RBIs.
 
Leading, 13-11, Rutgers-Camden saw Paterson take the lead for good with a five-run seventh inning, capped by a three-run home run from junior left fielder Noah Cabassa.
 
Murphy and Romond both had two hits and four RBIs for the Scarlet Raptors, while junior center fielder Auggie Uzdanovics went 3-for-5 with two runs and one RBI. Senior second baseman Danny Vazquez went 2-for-4 with four runs and three RBIs. Watson and freshman catcher Evan Carbone both added two hits.