Little Falls, NJ – Montclair State knew it had to be on its toes after what happened last year at the New Jersey Athletic Conference Tournament, when it came in as top seed and got bounced in two
straight games.

All top-seeded Montclair State needed yesterday in the opening game of the tournament was pitcher RYAN COSTELLO landing on his toe. That turned out to be the secret behind the 6-6 lefthander's outstanding pitching performance against fourth-seeded Ramapo.

Costello threw a four-hitter, tied his season high with 12 strikeouts and walked one in a 5-1 Montclair victory at Yogi Berra Stadium.

Montclair (28-9), which has won 18-of-19 this season against NJAC opponents and is the defending NCAA Division 3 champion, advanced to the winner's bracket today at 3 p.m.

"In the first inning, I felt like I wasn't releasing my fastball at the same point all the time," Costello who also struck out 12 against Ramapo the last time he faced them, said. "I came in after the second inning and pitching coach (Dennis) Morgan told me that I was landing on my hell. When you do that, you're jerking your body back. He told me to concentrate on landing on my toe first. That straightened me out."

Costello retired 15 of 16 batters in one stretch. He struck out five straight spanning the fifth and sixth innings.

Montclair State shortstop, who hadn't played since suffering a knee injury on April 21, played with a brace and batted fourth. The 2000 NJAC Player of the Year doubled to lead off the second, moved to third on a wild pitch and scored on a SCOTT CLARK sacrifice fly.

SCOTT ALLAN hit an RBI double for Montclair and scored on Clark's two-out, two-run single against Ramapo's Tim O'Shaughnessy (5-2) in the third as Montclair took a 4-0 lead.

Ramapo got its only run in the seventh when Jason Valloni caught up with a fastball and hit it out for his 12^th homer.