College Baseball
Rider University 11, LeMoyne College 4
Rider University 7, LeMoyne College 3
LAWRENCEVILLE--Junior Mason Heyne (Shrewsbury, Pa./Susquehannock) had five RBI and scored three other runs to lead Rider to a doubleheader sweep of former conference rival LeMoyne Saturday. "We played pretty good defense, we had some clutch hits and we got great starting pitching today," said Rider head coach Barry Davis. "We played pretty well."
In the first game Rider scored five runs in the seventh inning on four hits, including Heyne's two-run single, to take a 9-3 lead. "That was the biggest hit of the day," Davis said. "That gave us a 7-3 lead."
Rider scored three runs in the third inning on five consecutive hits, the biggest a two-run double by Heyne, to take a 4-1 lead. "Anytime you get five straight hits, good things usually happen," Davis understated. "That was a big time in the ball game."
The double was the 18th of the season for Heyne. "I felt pretty comfortable at the plate today," said Heyne, who had three hits in six at bats and now has 181 career hits, 14th most ever at Rider.
Junior Mike Thomas (Forest Hill, Md./Fallston) pitched eight innings, striking out eight, to improve to 7-2 on the season. Thomas is now 18-8 in his Rider career, tied for the 10th best record ever at Rider. "Thomas threw well," Davis said.
LeMoyne scored one run in the fifth inning and one in the sixth to cut the lead to 4-3.
Junior Karl Johnston (Hamilton, N.J./Peddie) walked, stole second and third and scored on a throwing error to tie the score at 1-1. Johnston leads Rider with 19 stolen bases.
Junior A.J. Albee (Ashley, Pa./Hanover Area) had three hits and scored two runs in the first game. "AJ had another good day at the plate," Davis said.
Albee now has 70 hits on the season.
In the second game, the Broncs (28-21) broke open a 3-0 game with four runs in the fifth inning on four hits, including a two-run single by junior John Ralston (Annandale, Va./Paul VI). "Ralston had a big hit down the line that got us separated from them," Davis said.
Ralston and Johnston each had two of Rider's eight hits in the second game.
Rider took a 2-0 lead in the first inning on two singles, a walk, a wild pitch and a sacrifice fly by Heyne.
Heyne is fifth in career RBI at Rider with 139. "I've been fortunate enough to get in those positions, batting with runners in scoring position," Heyne said. "I just try to get the big hit. See the ball up, take it to the outfield. Let the guys run a little bit. With runners on base I try to stay up the middle. It is harder to throw a runner out at the plate from center."
Freshman Mike Murphy (Hamilton/Peddie) pitched a complete, seven-inning game, his first, to improve to 3-4. "Murphy was outstanding," Davis said.
LeMoyne (28-27) broke the shutout with two outs in the last inning with a bases loaded double. "He had a shutout if he makes a better pitch there," Davis said.
"I felt pretty good today," said Murphy, who was the Mercer County American Legion Pitcher of the Year for Hamilton. "I just tried to throw strikes and work down, let them hit the ball. I was able to keep my fastball inside on them today and my change-up kept them off balance. My curve ball worked well with two strikes today."
"We got good starting pitching in both games today," Davis said. "In most of our doubleheaders this year we've burned a lot of our pitchers. Today we hardly used the bullpen at all."
Freshman Chris LeRoy (Freehold/Colts Neck) pitched one scoreless inning in the first game, the only Rider reliever to see action Saturday.
Rider and LeMoyne are former MAAC rivals. LeMoyne won MAAC titles in 2007, 2004, 2003 and 1998. "We knew coming in LeMoyne was a good team," Davis said. "We feel good about these two wins."
Rider and LeMoyne have met 34 times since the series began in 1998 with Rider winning 11, with three of those wins coming in post-season play.
Rider defeated LeMoyne 14-5 in 10 innings in the 2002 MAAC semifinals, 8-5 in the 2001 MAAC semifinals and 2-1 in the 1999 MAAC semifinals.
Rider and LeMoyne did not meet last year. In 2008 Rider lost three non-conference games at LeMoyne. LeMoyne left the MAAC after the 2007 season.
Rider freshman Adam Wayman (Wilkes-Barre, Pa./G.A.R. Memorial) had three hits and three RBI in the doubleheader and has 10 hits in the last six games.
Senior Nick Wojnowski (Baldwin, Md./Calvert Hall) had three hits and scored three runs in the doubleheader and will play his final home doubleheader Sunday.
Rider hosts Long Island University Sunday for a 1pm doubleheader, the final home games of the 2010 season. Five graduating Rider seniors will be honored before the first game.
"It's the last weekend at home," Davis said, "so these wins make for a good day. We certainly want to go out on a positive note, so hopefully we will."
Rider has won eight of its last 10 games.
"Hopefully we can get two wins for the seniors on Sunday and that would also get us to our goal of 30 wins," Heyne said. "Hopefully we'll end the home schedule with a bang."
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