College Baseball
Rider University 13, Saint Peter's College 3
JERSEY CITY- Junior Mason Heyne (Shrewsbury, Pa./Susquehannock) had three doubles and scored three runs and junior Karl Johnston (Hamilton, N.J./Peddie) had three hits, including two doubles, and scored four runs to lead Rider to a Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference victory at Saint Peter's Sunday.
With the win, Rider (18-15, 7-5 MAAC) sweeps the three-game series. "The sweep is big," said Rider head coach Barry Davis. "It is always good to do that, especially on the road."
Third-year sophomore Patrick Devlin (Richboro, Pa./Council Rock North) pitched seven innings, allowing just three hits while striking out four. "I thought he threw well," Davis said. "He was consistent once he settled in."
Devlin did not allow a hit until there were two outs in the fourth inning. "He had some walks early," Davis said, "but they weren't able to get good swings on him. He was very good."
SPC (9-22, 2-10 MAAC) cut the lead to 8-2 in the sixth inning on a wind-blown two-run home run. "The wind was blowing out to right," Davis said. "If you hit it good to right it was going to go out."
The Broncs took a 3-0 lead in the second inning on three hits, including RB I singles by senior Eric Woodrow (Hamilton, N.J./Hamilton West) and junior Steve Galella (Wilkes-Barre, Pa./G.A.R. Memorial). "That is one of our keys," Davis said. "We've been able to create some offense when we get ahead. When you fall behind early it is harder to be creative."
Woodrow and Galella each had two of Rider's 16 hits.
"We hit the ball pretty consistent," Davis said. "We had pretty good at bats for the most part. We were able to drive the ball."
Rider made it 7-0 in the fourth inning when Johnston walked, stole second, went to third on an error and scored on an RBI single by junior A.J. Albee (Ashley, Pa./Hanover Area). Albee had two hits and two RBI on the day. Heyne also had an RBI single in the fourth and extended his hitting streak to 14 games.
Rider took a 13-2 lead with a five run eighth inning. "We had some quality innings where we moved runners, got the guy over, guys took the extra base, stretching singles into doubles. We played pretty good baseball offensively and we didn't make any errors."
Freshman Adam Wayman (Wilkes-Barre, Pa./G.A.R. Memorial) had two RBI.
Senior Nick Wojnowski (Baldwin, Md./Calvert Hall) also had two hits Sunday and had seven hits in the series. "He hit the ball to right, he hit it to left, he hit the ball up the middle, he hit the ground ball," Davis said.
Rider hosts LIU Wednesday.
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