Glassboro, NJ – Freshman righthander
JESUS CASTANO (West New York, NJ/Memorial) tossed a complete-game four hitter as Montclair State gained a split of a New Jersey Athletic Conference doubleheader with Rowan on Saturday.
MSU fell 8-6 in the first game before coming back to take the nightcap, 9-1 behind Castano, who improved to 4-1 this season. Montclair State is now 9-9 on the year overall and 2-2 follwing the first week of play in the NJAC. Rowan is 9-8, 2-1 in the NJAC.
Castano picked up his second win in as many outings and his fourth this season as he allowed just an unearned run and struck out five in upping his mark to 4-1 on the year. Joe Cichy (Vineland, NJ/St. Augustine Prep) took the loss for the Profs.
Montclair State gave Castano all the support he would need in the second inning scoring five times.
KEVIN CUOZZI (Langhorne, PA/Neshaminy) singled to left with two outs to score
SCOTT EVANGELIST (Northfield, NJ/Holy Spirit) scored on an error for the first run and
JAMES SCELZO (Staten Island, NY/Petrides) added an RBI single to make the score 2-0.
MICHAEL NUNES (Hazlet, NJ/Raritan) collected an RBI single for the third run before
JEFF MILLER (Wyckoff, NJ/Ramapo) finished off the inning with a two-run single.
Cuozzi extended the lead to 6-0 in the third with his second RBI of the game and Montclair plated two more in the sixth as Rob Clark (Livingston, NJ/Seton Hall Prep) delivered a two-run single.
LOU POLITAN (Livingston, NJ/Livingston) accounted for the final run in the ninth with a sacrifice fly.
Miller, Clark, Cuozzi and
ERIC JOHNSON (Whippany, NJ/Whippany Park) each had two hits for MSU in the game.
In the first game,
ROB BOWNESS (Sparta, NJ/Seton Hall Prep) was 3-for-4 while Nunes and Clark each collected two hits for the Red Hawks.
MSU led 3-0 heading into the bottom of the fourth as
ANDREW VICARO (Randolph, NJ/Randolph) had an RBI single in the second and
ED KLOEPPING (Pennsville, NJ/Pennsville) added one in the fourth before scoring on an error.
Rowan would get a run back in the bottom half of the fourth and adter Montclair tacked on a run in the sixth on Clark's run-scoring single, the Profs tied the game in the bottom half with three runs.
The Profs would take the lead in the seventh scoring four times to build an 8-4 advantage. Montclair got two back in the eight on RBI singles by Evangelist and Miller, however reliever Kevin O'Hara retired the side in order in the ninth for the Profs to earn his third save of the year.
Conrad Renner (Howell, NJ/Freehold Township) picked up the win in relief.
TIM STRINGER (Annandale, NJ/North Hunterdon) suffered the loss.
The Red Hawks return to action on Tuesday, April 3 as they host Eastern Connecticut State at Yogi Berra Stadium. First pitch is scheduled for 4:00 pm.
