Little Falls, NJ – Freshman righthander
JESUS CASTANO (West New York, NJ/Memorial) and junior lefty
ENRIQUE GOMEZ (Edison, NJ/St. Joseph's) combined on a five-hit shutout in the opener for Montclair State and the Red Hawks scored three times, including the tying and winning runs on wild pitches in the bottom of the ninth as MSU swept a doubleheader from local rival William Paterson University, 6-0 and 9-8 in NJAC baseball action at Yogi Berra Stadium on Saturday afternoon.
Sophomore
SCOTT EVANGELIST (Northfield, NJ/Holy Spirit) had three RBI in the twinbill while
JEFF MILLER (Wyckoff, NJ/Ramapo) belted his fourth home run of the year in Game 2 as the Red Hawks have now won four straight and are 17-14 overall, 9-5 in the NJAC.
Vince Joyce ( Franklin , NJ / Wallkill Valley ) had two RBI in the nightcap for William Paterson, which fell to 15-13-2 overall, 3-9-1 in the conference with the two defeats.
In the nightcap, a four-run rally in the seventh and a run in the eighth staked WPU to an 8-6 lead heading into the bottom of the ninth, however things would unravel for the Pioneers. Miller was hit by a pitch to lead off the inning, and after an out,
ROB BOWNESS (Seton Hall Prep, NJ/Sparta) drew a walk against reliever Christian Miranda ( Bogota , NJ / Bergen Catholic) . Steve VandeVerede ( Lincoln Park , NJ /Pequannock) came and walked
LOU POLITAN ( Livingston , NJ /Livingston) on four pitches to put the winning run on. VandeVrede would then issue another walk to Rob Clark (Livingston, NJ/Seton Hall Prep) to force home a run to make the score 8-7. Senior righthander Tim Cowan ( Elizabeth , NJ / Roselle Catholic) was summoned from the bullpen, however his first pitch skipped in the dirt allowing Bowness to trot home with the tying run. On the very next pitch with MSU attempting a squeeze, Cowan's pitch hit the dirt again and bounced to the back stop giving pinch runner
THOMAS MEYER ( West Milford , NJ /West Milford ) an easy path to the plate with the winning run.
The rally made a winner of Red Hawks reliever
MARTY CABALAR ( Parsippany , NJ /Parsippany Hills) , Montclair 's fifth pitcher of the ball game. Cabalar surrendered a hit over the final 1 2/3 innings to improve to 2-1. VandeVrede took the loss to fall to 1-2.
William Paterson battled back from two two-run and a three-run deficits to take its first lead of the doubleheader in the seventh inning. Trailing 6-3, the Pioneers loaded the bases with one out before Mike Guadango (Upper Saddle River, NJ/Northern Highlands) bounced into a fielder's choice that scored one run and a second came around to score as a throwing error on the play plated Rick Pignatello (Wayne, NJ/Wayne Hills). After Guadango stole third, Ted King ( West Windsor , NJ / West Windsor South) drew a walk to put runners at the corners. Joyce then line an 0-2 pitch into left center for a double scoring both runners as William Paterson took a 7-6 lead. Up to that point, WPU was just 3-of-27 with runners in scoring position in the doubleheader. The next inning, Pignatello added an RBI double to give William Paterson a two-run lead.
MICHAEL NUNES ( Hazlet , NJ / Raritan ) and
KEVIN CUOZZI ( Langhorne , PA /Neshaminy) each had three hits for MSU while
ANDREW HIMMELFARB ( Nyack , NY /Nyack) collected two hits and drove in two runs. Pignatello finished 3-for-5 while Joyce was 2-for-5.
In the first game, Castano picked up his team-leading fifth victory of the year (5-1) as he went the first seven innings allowing just three hits, striking out five and walking three. Gomez came on and pitched two scoreless innings as MSU posted its second shutout of the season. Mike Irwin ( North Haledon , NJ/Manchester Regional) suffered the loss to fall to 2-1. Iwrin went seven innings giving up six runs (five earned) and five hits with six strike outs and four walks.
Montclair got single runs in the second and third as Evangelist brought home the first run with a ground out and Miller singled home Nunes to give the Red Hawks a 2-0 lead. Montclair tacked on two more in the fourth as it loaded the bases with no outs. Evangelist lofted a sacrifice fly to score Bowness and after a strikeout, Politan scored on a balk to make the score 4-0.
The Red Hawks' final two runs came in a similar fashion as pinch-runner Joe Zembryski ( Rutherford , NJ /St. Peter's Prep) scored on a passed ball and Clark drew a bases-loaded walk.
William Paterson had its chances however it could not come through with a key hit as it stranded 11 runners and went 0-for-12 with runners in scoring position in the contest. The Pioneers loaded the bases in the ninth inning with one out, however Gomez escaped the jam by striking out one batter and getting a flyout to end the game.
Guadango (3-for-4) had three of William Paterson's five hits while Miller and Bowness had two hits apiece for MSU.
Montclair State returns to action on Tuesday, April 24 as the Red Hawks host Johns Hopkins University under the lights at Yogi Berra Stadium beginning at 7:00 pm. William Paterson is back on the diamond on Monday, April 23 with an NJAC makeup contest at Wightman Park versus Rowan University (3:00 pm).
