College Baseball
Rider University 12, Longwood University 5
FARMVILLE, VA-The Broncs defeated Longwood Sunday afternoon to win the series three games to one. "We kept plugging away, kept fighting, and finally put them away in the seventh inning," said Rider head coach Barry Davis. "We played fairly well."
Junior A.J. Albee (Ashley, Pa./Hanover Area) had three hits and two RBI, while sophomore Brandon Cotten (Wiconisco, Pa./Williams Valley) had two hits and three RBI and scored three runs. Junior Mason Heyne (Shrewsbury, Pa./Susquehannock) had two hits, both doubles, and two RBI.
Albee hit a sacrifice fly and Heyne hit an RBI double to give Rider a 12-5 lead in the ninth inning. "Albee swung the bat," Davis said. "He's been hitting the ball pretty consistent. He gives us pretty good at bats. Mason came up with a big hit as well."
Rider trailed 5-4 before Albee, senior Eric Woodrow (Hamilton/Hamilton West), freshman Adam Wayman (Wilkes-Barre, Pa./G.A.R. Memorial), senior Nick Wojnowski (Baldwin, Md./Calvert Hall) and Heyne hit RBI singles as Rider scored six runs on seven hits in the seventh inning to take a 10-5 lead.
"Wayman had a big hit to tie the game up and Nick drove in a big run," Davis said.
Wojnowski, Woodrow, Wayman and junior Karl Johnston (Hamilton/Peddie) all had two of Rider's 17 hits. "We've had a few games so far with a lot of hits," Davis said, "it is a matter of putting the hits together. Today we were able to do that."
Freshman Sean Kuberiet (Branchburg/Somerville) pitched two and two-thirds shutout innings and freshman Tyler Smith (Westmont/Haddon Twp.) pitched two perfect innings. Freshman Chris LeRoy (Freehold/Colts Neck) pitched two-thirds of an inning in the sixth inning for the win, his first as a Bronc.
"Sean did a great job," Davis said. "LeRoy threw a lined-drive double play. I thought our bullpen was solid."
The Broncs (9-8) cut the lead to 5-4 in the fourth inning on a sacrifice fly by junior Steve Galella (Wilkes-Barre, Pa./G.A.R. Memorial). Galella also had two hits.
Rider tied the score at 3-3 in the third inning when Albee singled, stole second, stole third and scored on a single by Galella.
Longwood (9-8) broke a 3-3 tie with a home run and an RBI double in the bottom of the third inning, taking a 5-3 lead. "We thought we could put them away early but they wouldn't go away," Davis said. "They kept hanging in there."
Cotten gave Rider a 2-0 lead. In the top of the first inning he walked, went to second on a wild pitch, went to third on a fly ball and scored on a passed ball, and he hit a sacrifice fly in the second inning.
The Broncs went on the road with a 6-3 record and come home above .500. "We were fortunate to get three of four(from Longwood)," Davis said. "We recovered well after an 0-4 start to end up 4-5 (on the Spring Break trip). The competition this past week was good. We had to play well to win. We got a lot of players time and we were able to see a few things. That is always the goal this time of year. We have a better feel for what we have now than we did before we left."
The Broncs return home and travel to Rutgers Wednesday. "I've never won at Rutgers, so that is a motivational factor right there," Davis said. "It is always fun to go up there and play Rutgers. In-state team, a great program, all of that. Hopefully we'll be ready to go."
-ru-
