College Baseball
NJIT 5, Rider University 3
NEWARK?The Broncs lost to the New Jersey Institute of Technology Wednesday at Bears and Eagles Riverfront Stadium, home of the Newark Bears. “We had an overall poor performance tonight,” said Rider head coach Barry Davis. “Nobody did anything. We did not deserve to win.”
Both teams had seven hits.
NJIT (2-19) scored five runs in the seventh inning on three hits to take a 5-2 lead. “Give NJIT all the credit in the world,” Davis said. “For a team to have as rough a season as they've had to come out and play better than we did, they deserve to win and we don't deserve anything. We have to prevent the big inning.”
For Rider (14-15), senior Maurice Williams (Tinton Falls, N.J./Monmouth Regional), senior Sean Olson (Vineland, N.J./St. Augustine Prep) and sophomore Steve Galella (Wilkes-Barre, Pa./G.A.R. Memorial) each had two of Rider's seven hits. “They did okay but even those three left men in scoring position tonight,” Davis said.
Olson and Williams hit back-to-back doubles in the third inning to give Rider a 1-0 lead.
Williams hit another double, the 33rd of his career, in the fifth inning and scored on a single by Galella to give the Broncs a 2-0 lead.
Olson hit an RBI double in the eight inning, his sixth of the year and the 48th of his career, to cut the lead to 5-3.
Galella tripled in the seventh inning, his second triple of the season and the fourth of his career.
Rider junior Ryan Miller (Montoursville, Pa./Montoursville) started and allowed four hits in four scoreless innings, striking out three while walking one, leaving the game with a groin injury and a 2-0 lead. “He was coming out in the fifth inning anyway but he hurt his groin,” Davis said.
Rider left five runners on base in the first two innings to set the tone for the game and left 18 runners on base for the game. “We didn't hit with runners in scoring position,” Davis said.
Rider is now 4-1 against New Jersey rivals this season, having defeated Rutgers, Seton Hall, Monmouth and Princeton earlier this year.
Rider and NJIT met for the first time last year, with the Broncs winning 8-1 in Lawrenceville.
Rider travels to Loudonville, NY this weekend to take on Siena in the three-game MAAC series, beginning with a 12 noon doubleheader Saturday. “We have to go up there and play better,” Davis said.
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