CAMDEN, N.J. (March 9, 2025) – The Rutgers University-Camden baseball team scored in seven of its eight offensive innings, senior pitcher Ethan Carpenter hurled five strong innings to raise his record to 3-0 and junior second baseman Frankie Romond went 3-for-6 with six RBIs as the Scarlet Raptors defeated nationally-ranked SUNY-Cortland, 13-8, here Sunday.
 
Rutgers-Camden improved to 7-1 with its fourth straight win. Cortland, which has played five nationally-ranked teams so far, falls to 5-5. The Red Dragons, who entered the game ranked #15 in the D3baseball.com Top 25 poll and #19 in the ABCA poll, have lost three straight games. Two came against #3/6 Johns Hopkins in a doubleheader Saturday before losing to the Scarlet Raptors, who received two votes toward the D3baseball.com Top 25 poll last week.
 
It was the Scarlet Raptors' first win over a ranked team since April 25 and 26 last season, when Rutgers-Camden swept a home-and-home series with #20 Montclair State University.
 
The Scarlet Raptors scored in each of the first five innings as they took a 9-1 lead behind Carpenter, who worked into the sixth inning before being relieved. He finished with five innings pitched, allowing seven hits and three runs, only two earned. He walked one and struck out six. After allowing a first-inning run, he shut the Red Dragons down until the sixth, when an error and a single ended his day. Both runs ended up scoring as Cortland exploded for five runs to turn the Raptors' 9-1 lead into a 9-6 margin.
 
Rutgers-Camden took the lead for good in the bottom of the first inning on a pair of walks, a game-tying sacrifice fly by graduate student designated hitter Jack Muphy and a run-scoring wild pitch. In the second inning, Romond hit a two-run opposite-field double to start his huge day at the plate. He added an RBI triple in the fourth inning and a huge three-run home run in the seventh after Cortland had sliced the gap to 9-6. He missed a cycle by only a single, getting one final chance in the eighth inning and grounding out to first base. He scored two runs and drove home six. He also helped to turn a double play.
 
Graduate student reliever Jacob Shapley worked out of Cortland's big sixth inning, retiring two of the three batters he faced, and went on to finish the game, earning his first save as a Scarlet Raptor. Shapley worked 3.2 innings, allowing five hits and two earned runs. He walked two, struck out five and finished the game on the back end of a 3-6-1 double play.
 
In addition to Romond, junior left fielder Jacob Watson had another big day as the Raptors' leadoff man, going 3-for-4 with two walks, four runs and two stolen bases. He hiked his career-record stolen bases to 84, including 12-for-12 this season.
 
Senior third baseman Ryan Nutley went 2-for-4 with a walk and three runs and senior center fielder Steven Shaffer went 1-for-3 with three walks, two runs and one RBI. Sophomore catcher Julian Gonzalez went 1-for-3 with one run and two walks, while Murphy added two sacrifice flies.
 
The Scarlet Raptors return to action on Wednesday when they entertain Rosemont College at 3:30 p.m. It will be their final game before a spring break trip to Florida.