College Baseball
Rider University 11, Saint Peter's College 4
LAWRENCEVILLE--In the final game under 34-year head coach Sonny Pittaro, and the final game to be played on the 44-year old Richard F. Daly Field, the Broncs beat Saint Peter's in a Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference game Saturday.
Senior pitcher Eric Weiner (Lawrenceville/Lawrence) won his final Rider game, striking out four to give him 87 strikeouts for the season, just four shy of the Rider record.
Seniors Sean Whalen (Hamilton Square/Steinert) and Eric D'Alessandro (Middletown/Mater Dei), playing in their final game, each homered and combined for five hits and four runs scored.
Freshman Justin Roszkowski (Clark/Arthur Johnson) led the 17-hit Rider attack with four hits.
Junior Jonathan Rehm (St. James, NY/St. Anthony's), sophomore Mike Poalise (Hammonton) and Whalen each had three hits for Rider (24-27, 15-12 MAAC).
Pittaro retires with a career record of 766-674. The 766 wins ranks 30th in Division I among active coaches. Pittaro will be inducted into the Trenton Baseball Hall of Fame June 7 prior to the Trenton Thunder game, and will be inducted into the American Baseball Coaches Association Hall of Fame in Nashville, TN in January.
The new Rider baseball field, on the back of campus, will open in the spring of 2005. The old field, constructed in 1961, was named Daly Field in the fall of 1987.
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