The Ramapo baseball team struck again by winning both games against William Paterson University (WPU) on Thursday and Friday, and a split against Rowan in a doubleheader over the weekend.
The Roadrunners have been on their game and producing wins in the New Jersey Athletic Conference (NJAC) as of late. To start, winning against WPU was a real nail-biter in the first game of the week.
On Thursday, the Roadrunners and the Pioneers went into a 10-inning game ending in a great comeback from the Ramapo, winning 13-12. They solidified their battle when scoring six runs in the fifth inning and then scoring a run in the eighth to tie the game.
To secure more of their runs, John Higgins got on base due to an error and Jack Tallent hit a single. Matt Lalomia then moved his teammates over to make bases loaded after walking.
With Jesse Swartout up, a wild pitch went by to score Higgins, moving the runners over. Swartout then hit a sac fly to left-center to get runners in and moved Lalomia to third to make the score 12-12.
Robert Klawans was on fire, going 5-5 after hitting a walk-off into left field to drive Lalomia for the win. Will Paoli pitched a great game to earn the win for the Roadrunners with his teammates helping him out for runs.
On Friday, the Roadrunners returned to face the Pioneers again at WPU’s home turf. The Roadrunners kept up their winning streak by beating the Pioneers 12-9. The team won their seventh straight game and stood at 18-8 and 7-1 in the conference.
Lalomia started off strong to get runners on the board with a three-run home run with runners Higgins and Tallent on base. Sean Donaghue added another with a solo homer to left, making it 4-0. With runner Dominick Ciani on base, Zack Bailey hit a double to left. Then Higgins took his shot and scored Bailey on a single. Next up was Lalomia with another RBI single to drive Higgins in to make it 7-0.
WPU responded and put up two runs in the fifth, but the Roadrunners put up more runs in the sixth. In the top of the sixth, Donaghue was driven in by Bailey to score another run making it 8-2. Higgins recorded an RBI sac fly that drove in Tyler Guadagno and then after a pitching change from WPU, Ciani scored on a wild pitch to make it 10-2. Then, later, Will Egner tripled to bring in Bailey and Lalomia to make it a 12-2 lead.
Jack Martin went to earn the win for the Roadrunners, pitching a great game with 10 strikeouts. Ryan Lasko pitched the last two innings with three strikeouts, no walks and three runs scored on three hits.
Moving to the weekend, the Roadrunners faced Rowan for a double header. Ramapo had a tricky first game, losing 13-2 against the Profs. They already had a tricky start to the game with a 2-1 lead for the Profs, but disaster struck in the fourth after they allowed nine more runs to make it 11-1. Ramapo was able to score one more run in the seventh, but it was no match for Rowan while they added another run to the board making it 13-2 lead.
Lalomia and Ciani contributed to the two runs based off of their hits, with Lalomia going 2-3 with an RBI and a double.
Game two is where they showed their strength with a lead in the second with a walk from Higgins and a double from Tallent. Then, with Swartout and Klawans on base, Christian Alonso singled to make it a 3-2 lead. That didn’t stop Rowan from adding another run in to tie the game at 3-3. TJ Roman pinch ran for Jack Tallent as he singled getting on base. With a final sac fly, Roman was then driven in safely to make it the final 4-3 win for the Roadrunners.
The Roadrunners host Kean University for their next NJAC game of the season at 3:30 p.m. today.
jbarnes5@ramapo.edu
Featured photo by Jenna Barnes
