Photo courtesy of Ramapo Athletics
The Ramapo College’s baseball team topped the rankings in the latest D3baseball.com Top 25 Poll after going undefeated (3-0) last week. The Roadrunners received 12 first place votes from Division III coaches across the nation. Their overall record stands at 20-1-1.
Ramapo outscored their opponents 30-2 last week with wins over Lehman College, Old Westbury and NJAC rival Montclair State University. The Roadrunners completed the home-and-home series with MSU on Monday afternoon, coming away with a 9-1 road win to earn their 20th win of the season.
This is the first time Ramapo has earned the No. 1 ranking under head coach Rich Martin, who is in his 16th season at the school. The Roadrunners next win milestone is 30 wins, which will be the fifth time in the last six seasons the team has won 30 or more games. The team will play seven more games this week due to rainouts from the previous week.
The Roadrunners are led by senior second basemen Joe Venturino, who earned D3baseball.com All-America honors last season. So far this season, he leads the team with a .436 batting average and 34 hits. Sophomore Austin Unglaub leads the team with 23 RBI, while six other Roadrunners in the everyday lineup are hitting over .300.
The team started their season off going undefeated at the Russ Matt Tournament down in Winter Haven, Florida. Some highlights of the tournament were double-header wins over No. 15/22 Washington University (MO) and a 20-5 win in eight innings over Franklin and Marshall College.
Ramapo tied Farleigh Dickinson University on March 24, 7-7. The game was eventually called after the ninth inning due to darkness. While this may have ended their perfect season, their undefeated status still stood.
The lone loss of the season was dished out by Miscercordia University in their next game. On March 29, the Cougars had a four-run sixth inning to take a 6-2 lead en route to an 8-5 win. The loss ended Ramapo’s dream of a perfect season but did not deter the team.
Since the loss, the Roadrunners have played with full force. They have won their last six games and have outscored their opponents 52-11.
As the NJAC playoff race continues to heat up, with 17 games remaining in the 2016 season, Ramapo returns to action at Jeff Maund Field on Thursday when they host NJAC rival Rutgers-Newark University.
rcarillo@ramapo.edu
