WINTER HAVEN, Fla. (March 22, 2025) – Senior southpaw Chase Cooper worked seven shutout innings as the nationally-ranked Rutgers University-Camden baseball team ended its trip to the RussMatt Central Florida Invitational here Saturday with a 5-4 victory over Maritime College.
 
Rutgers-Camden, ranked #19 by D3baseball.com and #25 in the ABCA poll, improved its record to 12-5, snapping a three-game losing streak. Maritime, based in Throggs Neck, New York, fell to 7-9.
 
Cooper raised his record to 4-0, working the first seven innings as the Scarlet Raptors built a 5-0 lead and hung on when the Privateers scored two runs in both the eighth and ninth innings. Cooper allowed only three hits, while walking three and striking out one.
 
Rutgers-Camden scored three runs in the first inning off Maritime senior Frank Santeramo (0-2) after the first three Raptors reached base. Junior left fielder Jacob Watson walked and stole second base to extend his career program record to 87 steals. He scored after an infield single by senior center fielder Steven Shaffer was thrown away by the Maritime shortstop, allowing Shaffer to reach second. Senior third baseman Ryan Nutley added an RBI single. One out later, senior designated hitter Jack Murphy, playing in his program record-tying 154th career game, delivered Nutley with an RBI double.
 
Jack Murphy tied the record of 154 games set by another Murphy, Brian Murphy, who played with the Scarlet Raptors from 2001-04.
 
Rutgers-Camden added a run in the second inning when sophomore shortstop Austin Dubler walked, stole second and third bases and scored on a two-out error. The Raptors' final run came in the sixth inning after a one-out single by junior right fielder Isaiah Pinkney. Freshman John Marcucci pinch-ran for Pinkney and scored on a triple by Dubler.
 
The Privateers closed the gap in the late innings once Cooper left the game. They scored twice in the eighth inning on a walk and two hits, an RBI double by junior designated hitter John Carollo and an RBI triple by junior first baseman Alex Bardi. Senior reliever Daniel Robeson entered the game to work out of the jam with a fly out. He finished the game to earn his second save, despite allowing two runs in the ninth inning on a two-out, two-run single by freshman second baseman David Granucci.
 
Shaffer led the six-hit Rutgers-Camden attack, going 2-for-5. Bardi and Carollo both had two hits for Maritime.
 
The Scarlet Raptors play their next game on Wednesday at 6 p.m. at the Camden Athletic Complex. They will face Ursinus College, which received 12 votes last week toward the ABCA poll and one vote toward the D3baseball.com Top 25.