The Ramapo Roadrunners’ baseball team defeated the Manhattanville College Valiants, 16-5, after falling behind 3-0 after the first inning. The team rallied during the third inning, in which they scored five runs.
The Roadrunners made the most of an opportunity with the bases loaded in the third. Sophomore Kevin Kelly, juniors Brandon Berger and John Capuano, and seniors Dave Jacob and Christian Spurr all scored in the inning.
A sophomore at Ramapo and an infielder for the Roadrunners, Ian Osterman said that chasing out Manhattanville’s starting pitcher senior Bashir Masani during the third inning helped pave the way toward the victory.
“That was when our hitters started to see the pitcher,” Osterman said. “Once we got the starter out, their bullpen wasn’t too strong.”
After the third, Manhattanville replaced Masani with sophomore Brian Lobel. Junior Ryan Blinderman later replaced Lobel during the fifth inning.
The Roadrunners built on a 5-3 lead in an explosive fifth inning. Spurr, Kelly and Berger each added another run. With additional runs from freshman Joe Venturino, sophomores Kevin Case and Dan McEldowney, and senior Anthony Vinci, Ramapo controlled the game at 12-3.
After allowing three runs in the first, the Roadrunners, led by sophomore starting pitcher Nick Cavanaugh, allowed zero runs and only two hits until the sixth inning. In the sixth, Manhattanville scored twice with runs by sophomores Bobby Guerra and Kevin Brady.
Ramapo answered with four unanswered runs from the sixth to eighth inning from Vinci and sophomore Zach Carroll. Case scored twice in that span.
Ramapo did not allow any runs in the top of the ninth and walked away with a 16-5 win.
Case led the Roadrunners with three runs on three hits in four at-bats. Kelly, Berger, Spurr and Vinci each had two runs. Cavanaugh led Ramapo’s pitchers with four strikeouts in five innings. Freshmen Kurt Rutmayer and Anthony Gould, sophomore Mark Doyle, and senior Bryan Sullivan pitched an inning each after the fifth.
“Once you get into the rhythm of bringing in multiple guys, it’s hard for them to find their rhythm,” Osterman said. “It’s nice to get a lot of the guys some playing time.”
The Roadrunners, now 21-5-1, were ranked No. 14 on D3baseball.com’s Top 25 and No. 20 on the American Baseball Coaches Association’s Top 30 on Tuesday.
Manhattanville College, now 10-21, plays their next game on Friday against DeSales University (22-8) at Manhattanville field.
The Roadrunners’ next game will be a New Jersey Athletic Conference (NJAC) matchup against Rutgers-Newark (7-23) today at Ramapo. In NJAC matches, the Roadrunners are 6-3-1 while Newark has posted a record of 2-8.
