DURHAM, NC– Clayton Poliey (Ringwood, NJ/Don Bosco Prep) had the outing of a lifetime in his first career start striking out eight batters en route to eight scoreless innings, as the Rider University Baseball team scored a massive upset win over #6 Duke, 6-2. With the win, Rider moves to 2-9, and #6 Duke falls to 13-3. The win is also Rider's highest-ranked win since last year when they scored a 2-1 win over the sixth-ranked Blue Devils. 

Poliey was the Broncs' biggest story of the day, as in his first career start he would go eight full innings striking out eight Duke batters and allowing no runs in the process in his first career start with the Broncs. For Poliey the eight full innings and eight strikeouts are new career-highs breaking his previous bests of 5.1 innings and five strikeouts at Gardner Webb in his collegiate debut last season. 

The Broncs' day would start incredibly strong, as the offense continued its hot streak from the previous series with Luke Lesch (Gloucester Township, NJ/Gloucester Catholic) extending his hit streak to five straight contests with a RBI double in the first inning. The Broncs added another run moments later when Jack Winsett (Voorhees, NJ/Eastern Regional) drove in Lesch to go ahead 2-0 after one.

Rider then added runs in the third and fourth innings thanks to some smart base running by Winsett and Anthony Paskell (Solon, OH/Saint Ignatius). In the third Paskell started the frame with a base hit, Paskell and the Broncs would play small ball to move him to third, and a moment later Lesch grounded out, but scored Paskell from third to go ahead 3-0. In the fourth Winsett would score on a bases-loaded wild pitch. 

In the fifth, the Broncs continued to get runners moving as Lesch and Brian Skettini (Midland Park, NJ/Ridgewood) both were driven in the frame. Skettini started the inning off with a walk and Lesch added to his impressive day with his second extra-base hit of the afternoon to put runners at second and third. A sac-fly from Kyle Neri (Williamstown, N.J./St. Augustine Prep[Bryant]) and a ground out from Winsett would bring the pair in to score to get the Broncs ahead 6-0

In the ninth, the Broncs would go to a new arm and the Blue Devils found life offensively. Duke kicked off the inning with a double from Alex Stone and a base hit from Logan Bravo. The Blue Devils did bring in a pair of runs in the inning however Brian Young (Neptune, NJ/Communication) and the Broncs' defense were able to halt the Blue Devil offense and secure the victory 6-2 in Durham.

"An outstanding performance by Clayton Poliey. It was as good an effort as I've seen in my 20 years here at Rider. Brian Young was solid in his first appearance since ETSU got the final three outs, and we didn't walk a single batter defensively. Offensively, we did just about everything right. Moved the ball and pushed across a few runs." – Rider Baseball Head Coach Dr. Barry Davis

- Poliey got the win in his first career start going eight scoreless innings with a career-high eight strikeouts.

- Young would finish the game going one inning with a strikeout and no earned runs.

 - Rider had nine hits as Paskell, Lesch, Winsett, Matt Leahy (Woolwich, NJ/Gloucester Catholic), Joe Tiroly (Yardley, PA/Pennsbury), and Erich Hartmann (Medford, NJ/Shawnee) all registered hits in the win

- Lesch moved his hit streak to five games, and on-base streak to 11 games. Lesch also captured his team-best fifth multi-hit game

- Skettini has now scored in five straight.

The Broncs continue their mid-week series at #6 Duke tomorrow at 4:00 PM