College Baseball
Rider University 10, Iona College 1
Iona College 7, Rider University 2
LAWRENCEVILLE-The Broncs split a Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference doubleheader with Iona Saturday. "I had a feeling it was going to catch up to us," Rider head coach Barry Davis said of the first conference loss of the season after winning the first four league games. "It is hard to win every game in this league."
In the first game, Rider took a 3-0 lead in the third inning on four hits, including a two-run home run by senior A.J. Albee (Ashley, Pa./Hanover Area), his second of the season and the 15th of his career. "That was a big hit by AJ," Davis said. "That opened it up."
The Broncs made it 6-0 in the fourth inning on four more hits, including a two-run single by freshman Nick Crescenzo (Hammonton, NJ/Hammonton). Crescenzo had three RBI in game one.
Senior Mike Thomas (Forest Hill, Md./Fallston) pitched six innings, allowing one run while striking out three. Thomas improved to 3-1 on the season and 23-10 for his career. "Mike wasn't as sharp as he's been but he fought through it," Davis said. Thomas' three strike outs matched his season low while his four walks was a season-high.
The 23 career wins is third most ever at Rider and just three shy of the Bronc record.
Sophomore Adam Wayman (Wilkes-Barre, Pa./G.A.R. Memorial) had four of Rider's 17 hits. "We put some hits together," Davis said. "Their pitcher was pretty good."
Junior Brandon Cotten (Wiconisco, Pa./Williams Valley) and senior Mason Heyne (Shrewsbury, Pa./Susquehannock) each had three hits.
Senior Jeff Giordano (Massapequa Park, N.Y./Massapequa) pitched the final three innings for his second save of the season.
In the second game, Iona (8-15, 1-4 MAAC) scored four runs in the second inning on three hits, including a solo home run and a three-run double, and the Gaels took a 6-1 lead in the fourth inning with two runs on two hits and two Rider errors.
"In the first game we hit the ball, we caught it and played error-free baseball," Davis said. "We didn't do that in the second game. We didn't hit and we didn't run the bases well. We didn't catch the ball."
The Broncs committed three errors in the second game.
Rider (14-10, 4-1 MAAC) got on the board in the third inning with an RBI single by Crescenzo and cut the lead to 6-2 in the fifth inning when senior John Ralston (Annandale, Va./Paul VI) walked, stole second and scored on an error.
Senior Nate Eppley (Dillsburg, Pa./Northern) pitched a complete (seven innings) game, allowing six earned runs. "I thought we pitched decent," Davis said.
With hits in both games Crescenzo extended his hitting streak to 13 games and Cotten extended his hitting streak to 11 games. Cotten had five hits and Wayman had six hits in the doubleheader.
Rider and Iona have now met 45 times since the series began in 1960 with Rider winning 30. The Broncs won all three games at Iona last year, took two out of three when Iona visited Lawrenceville in 2009 and Rider won all three at Iona in 2008. The Gaels won two of three in 2007.
The third game of the series will be played Sunday at 12 noon, also at Rider.
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