Ramapo’s baseball team kicked off the season with three games, defeating Centenary University and losing twice to Swarthmore College in a doubleheader. The Roadrunners sit 1-2 on the season and have not played a New Jersey Athletic Conference game yet.
Ramapo started strong with a huge 21-5 win against Centenary on Feb. 28. Junior Jack Martin pitched five innings, allowing three hits, two runs and striking out three batters.
The Roadrunners scored early in the first inning with two runs off a home run by infielder Zack Bailey. They added six more runs in the second inning, one on an error by pitcher Nick Guiro and one from a wild pitch. One came during the fifth inning from a home run by catcher Sean Donaghue, and three more came during the sixth inning.
Ramapo had a strong 12-3 lead by the eighth inning but they didn’t stop there, tallying nine more. Most notably, junior catcher Jesse Swartout brought in four runs off a home run.
Ramapo finished the final three innings with pitching from senior Wesley Pierorazio, junior Ryan Lasko and junior Billy Scanlon. Pierorazio allowed one run and Scanlon allowed two. While Centenary switched pitchers six times during the game, the loss went to Joseph Frei, who allowed six runs in the first two innings.
The Roadrunners then took on Swarthmore on Saturday, losing the first of their two matchups 14-8. Ramapo scored first at the top of the third inning with five unearned runs, three of them coming from senior infielder John Higgins with an RBI double. They stayed ahead with another run in the fifth inning.
Swarthmore then took the lead, nabbing their 14 runs in four innings. They earned a whopping 10 runs in the seventh, nine of which came from traditional RBIs and one from a throwing error. Ramapo added two more runs in the ninth but were not able to overtake the Phoenixes.
The Roadrunners’ pitching allowed 10 walks and hit Swarthmore players five times. Freshman Jake Depetris took the loss, allowing for six runs and hitting two players in less than one inning. For Swarthmore, pitcher Jeremy Jensen recorded the win, allowing three hits and one walk in three innings.
Ramapo then fell 6-5 to Swarthmore again that day in a much closer game. The Roadrunners scored three runs in the third inning, one coming from a throwing error, one from a wild pitch and the last coming from an RBI single by senior outfielder Matt Lalomia. They grabbed one more run in each of the fourth and fifth innings, both on wild pitches, but remained scoreless for the rest of the game.
Swarthmore slowly caught up, tying the game in the fifth inning with four runs. They overtook the Roadrunners in the seventh inning off an RBI double from Matthew Silvestre.
The loss went to senior pitcher Gerard Chiricolo for Ramapo, who allowed one run, one walk and hit one player in one inning. Pitcher Andrew Moy took the win for Swarthmore with only one hit, one walk and two strikeouts in a scoreless three innings. Pitcher Steven Jungers got the save for the Phoenixes, throwing a scoreless final inning.
The Roadrunners will next play Amherst College in a doubleheader at home on Saturday at 11:30 a.m. and 3:30 p.m. They will then travel to Reading, Pennsylvania to play Alvernia University on Tuesday at 3 p.m.
rgatherc@ramapo.edu
Featured photo courtesy of @rcnj_baseball, Instagram
