College Baseball

Rider University 4, Sacred Heart University 1

LAWRENCEVILLE, NJ— The word inauguration stems from the Latin augur, which refers to the rituals of ancient Roman priests seeking to interpret if it was the will of the gods for a public official to be deemed worthy to assume office.

On Inauguration Day at Rider University, the Bronc baseball team deemed worthy of a victory in its inaugural game with Sacred Heart.

And the Rider starting pitcher was very pleasing to the baseball gods. “That's the kind of performance we're looking for,” said Rider head coach Barry Davis. “He was pretty good today.”

Rider sophomore pitcher Nick Margevicius (North Royalton, Ohio/St. Ignatius) struck out every batter in the visiting line up, finishing with 11 K's to lead the Broncs to victory over Sacred Heart Friday. “That's hard to do,” Davis said.  “Strike out all nine guys in the lineup. He stabilized things today.”

“I might have done that once in high school,” Margevicius said of striking out all nine batters in the lineup.  “I felt pretty good today. I was hitting my spots with the fastball, getting ahead in the count.”

Margevicius pitched seven innings and allowed just one unearned run while striking out a career-high 11 with just two walks. The 6'4” lefty, who struck out 10 Canisius batters last year as a rookie, allowed four hits for his second win of the season and the seventh win of his young career.

Junior Josh Sharik (Ewing, NJ/Plumstead Christian), who set a Rider record last year with 33 relief appearances, pitched the final two scoreless innings Friday for the save, his first of the year and third save of his career. “Sharik was real good today,” Davis said.

Rider junior Mike Volaski (Oxnard, CA/Oxnard) gave Rider a 1-0 lead in the fourth inning with an RBI single and gave Rider a 2-1 lead in the sixth inning with another RBI single. “Those were big hits, both with two outs,” Davis said. “He's coming around.”

“Still trying to get used to this cold weather,” said Volaski, who was never east of Arizona before this year and saw his first snow this winter. “This is my first time playing in cold weather. I'm getting used to it now.”

The hits extended Volaski's hitting streak to seven games. “He's aggressive, he's putting the ball in play,” Davis said.  “He's hitting the ball hard to all fields.”

“I'm just trusting my abilities, seeing some good pitches and taking good hacks at it,” said the California Kid.  “I'm seeing the ball really well right now.”

The third baseman has 12 hits and Rider is 6-1 in those seven games. “It looks like it is a matter of him finally getting comfortable,” Davis said.

The Broncs (9-18) scored three runs in the sixth on three hits, all with two outs, including an RBI double by senior James Locklear (Hamilton, NJ/Steinert) and a single by sophomore Christian Estevez (River Edge, NJ/River Dell).

Estevez and junior Tyler Kaiser (Moorestown, NJ/Moorestown) each had two of Rider's 10 hits. Junior Dalton Mayberry (Chadds Ford, PA/Garnett Valley) added a double. “The offense is coming,” Davis said. “You can kind of see it. We have guys who can drive the ball and have the potential to make things happen.”

Sacred Heart (12-12) tied the score at 1-1 in the fifth inning without a hit, as the Broncs committed a pair of errors in the fifth.

Sacred Heart won the NEC last year for the third time in the last five years and is currently 6-1 in NEC play.

It was the first time Rider and Sacred Heart ever met in baseball.

The second game of the three-game series has been moved from Saturday to Sunday as part of an 11am doubleheader. “We'll be tested on Sunday with 18 innings to pitch,” Davis said. “It is nice to win the first one and hopefully that is something we can build on in future weekends.”

-ru-