Little Falls, NJ – William Paterson had a golden opportunity to make things a bit easier for itself, but instead the Pioneers ran into a brick wall in the form of Montclair State.

On a sunny Saturday afternoon at Yogi Berra Stadium, the Red Hawks made things look bleak in the Pioneers dugout, sweeping a doubleheader, 6-0 in game 1 and 3-2 in the nightcap.

MSU, winners of 13 straight games since a 7-1 loss to Rutgers-Newark on April 14, ran its record to 27-8 overall and for the second straight year, finished its New Jersey Athletic Conference regular season scheduled to 17-1. However, the scenario is much different in other clubhouse.

With the two losses, William Paterson (18-9-1 overall, 9-6-1 in NJAC) needs to sweep Stockton (9-13, 2-13) on Sunday in a doubleheader that begins at noon on the campus in Wayne in order to ensure a spot in the NJAC playoffs.

"We have to win two now," WPU head coach Jeff Albies said. "We're still in the hunt. This is a little disappointing now. You hope to win two and after that you look to get one. We had some opportunities to get it and we didn't get it."

MSU dominated the opener as junior southpaw RYAN COSTELLO threw eight innings, fanning right while scattering only five hits and no runs. Costello allowed four runners to reach scoring position, but each time was able to pitch his way out of trouble.

The Pioneers only real threat came in the seventh inning when trailing 2-0, they loaded the bases with two outs. Costello, however, induced a groundball by Robin Roberts to second that resulted in an inning-ending fielder's choice.

"I think my shoulder started getting a little bit tired," said Costello, who threw 139 pitches to earn his third win of the season. "Physically I wasn't breathing heavy or anything. I started throwing during a long rest and felt that my arm was a little behind. So I just tried to concentrate on keeping it forward a little bit and it was fine after that."

Montclair State tackled on three more runs after the seventh inning stretch, a rally that started when CHRIS BARAN was plunked by WPU starter, Steve Crampton, who gave up five runs and 10 hits through seven innings.

After Baran stole second, CRAIG CONWAY drilled an RBI double to center field, his third hits of the game. SCOTT ALLAN and JEFF SCHRIBER would each follow suit with RBI doubles, giving the Red Hawks a 5-0 advantage and Costello some breathing room.

"You have to remember that Ryan hadn't pitched in a week" said MSU head coach Norm Schoenig, referring to Costello's layoff since his previous start against Ramapo last Saturday. "Ryan didn't have his best stuff. He had a good fastball, but his breaking pitch and changeup weren't where they needed to be. But he's got a live arm, so to a degree he was overpowering."

The second contest was similar to the first, as both teams received effective pitching performances, but the Red Hawks' hit in timely situations and WPU did not.

MSU starter COREY HAMMAN (7-5) went the distance, striking out 10 while surrendering only two runs, one of which was earned, and five hits. His pitch count of 135 was a bit deceptive because Hamman consistently got ahead in the count, allowing him to settle in and use his entire repertoire of pitches.

"Today I definitely felt I had my best stuff," Hamman said. "Once I got through the first couple of innings and got stretched out a little, I felt everything that I threw was going to be a strike."

The Pioneers finally generated a run in the third innings – they were held scoreless through the afternoon's first 11 1/3 innings. Shortstop Dan Sherlock led off with a double, reached third on Jack Lipari's grounder back to the mound and scored on Robin Roberts lone hit of the afternoon, an infield single.

MSU however, did not trail for long, countering in the bottom half of the third with two runs and three hits off WPU sophomore Charles Bowman, who have up three runs (two earned) and five hits in eight innings.

SCOTT CLARK led off with a single and went to third on a bae hi by leadoff hitter DAVE WURST. ADAM CERMINARO then grounded out to Sherlock, but Clark was able to cross the plate for the tying run.
After Conway struck out, Allan drilled a single to center scoring Wurst, giving MSU a lead it would not relinquish.

The Red Hawks added an insurance run in the sixth inning when Schriber, who reached base via a two-ut error by WPU third baseman Matt Rozema, scored from third on Clark's two-out single. That run proved to be the difference as the Pioneers scored again in the eighth and, after getting the game-tying and go-ahead runners on with two outs in the ninth, popped out to first to end the game.

 "I think it's a credit to their pitching. You can't wait until the eighth or ninth inning to get runners on base and potentially the game," Albies said. "They had us off-blance and we just didn't take any hacks. We didn't come up aggressively looking to hit the baseball hard."

Perhaps the only positive the Pioneers can take from Saturday's  two losses is that it prepared them for today's two-game set against Stockton, a team not nearly as talented or experienced as the defending national champions.