Little Falls, NJ – Sophomore left
COREY HAMMAN pitched seven shutout innings in the opener and Montclair State put 11 runs on the board in the sixth inning of the second game as it swept past Rutgers-Camden 9-0 and 20-9 at Yogi Berra Stadium on Saturday.
Junior third baseman
CRAIG CONWAY drove in six runs as MSU (22-3-1, 10- NJAC) pushed its winning streak to nine games and has won 19 of its last 20 contests.
Hamman dominated Rutgers-Camden as he improved to 4-1 on the season. The left allowed just one hit over seven innings and struck out 12. Sophomore right-hander Kevin Rakowski-Kulhmann finished off MSU's second shutout of the season with two scoreless innings.
Conway and
DAVE WURST each drove in two runs while
CHRIS BARAN went 3-for-5 with an RBI.
FRANK FRANCIA was 2-for-3 with a run batted in.
The Red Hawks did all their scoring in the middle innings, starting with a five-run third. Francia led off the inning with a single and scored the first run on an error. Wurst followed with an RBI double, and two batters later Conway ripped a two-run triple for a 4-0 advantage.
FRANK LONGO singled in Conway for the final run.
Wurst extended the lead in the fourth with an RBI single that scored
MARC HOUSER and Baran's run-scoring double put Montclair in front 7-0. Francia added an RBI single in the fifth with Houser's run-scoring ground out finishing off the Red Hawks' scoring.
In the second game, Francis belted a two-run homer in the second as Montclair built a 5-1 lead. However, Rutgers-Camden stormed back, scoring seven times in the fourth to take an 8-5 advantage. MSU would get a run back in the fifth on an RBI single by
BRIAN ELLERSON before exploding for 11 runs in the sixth.
JEFF SCHRIBER cracked a solo homer and Conway added an RBI double to tie the game at 8-8-. Longo singled to give the Red Hawks the lead and back-to-back run-scoring base hits by Ellerson and Francia made the score 12-8. Conway tallied two more RBI in the inning on a single and a Gallagher base hit delivered Baran as MSU led 17-8.
Gallagher came on in relief to pick up the victory. The right-hander struck out seven in 3 2/3 innings in improving to 3-2 on the year.
Wurst finished 3-for-4 with three runs and two RBI while Conway was 2-for-3 and four runs batted in. Ellerson also had four hits with Gallagher and Francia each getting two.
The Red Hawks are back in action on Thursday, April 20 against Rutgers-Newark at Riverfront Stadium.
