Little Falls, NJ – Freshman righthander SCOTT SHAN (Toms River, NJ / Toms River East) came on and struck out the final batter with the tying runs on base to pick up his first save of the season as Montclair State held off a charging New Jersey City University for a 9-7 win in a New Jersey Athletic Conference baseball contest at Yogi Berra Stadium on Thursday afternoon.

Junior rightfielder SCOTT EVANGELIST (Northfield, NJ / Holy Spirit) belted a home run and drove in two as the Red Hawks won their fourth straight and improved to 15-11 on the season, 6-3 in the NJAC.

Senior first baseman Jose Colon (Brooklyn, NY / LaSalle Academy (NY)) was 3-for-5 with three RBI while Joe Steinberger (San Diego, CA / San Diego) blasted a two-run homer for the Gothic Knights, who dropped to 12-17-1, 2-7 in the league and were playing for the first time in a week.

Deadlocked at 5-5 after five innings, Montclair State took the lead in the sixth as MATT HARTWICK (Ringwood, NJ / Lakeland Regional) singled home Mike Kaminski (Neshanic Station, NJ / Somerville) with one out in the inning. MSU extended that lead with two in the seventh as MICHAEL BOGGI (Towaco, NJ / Seton Hall Prep) doubled and eventually scored on a pair of passed balls for a 7-5 Red Hawk advantage. MSU would load the bases and got its eighth run as MICKEY MCGRAW (Morristown, NJ / Morristown) crossed the plate following a botched force play at home.

NJCU came dangerously close to cutting that deficit in the eighth inning as an error and walk helped load the bases with one out. MSU reliever Lou Cautero (Succasunna, NJ / Roxbury) came on and uncorked a pitch in the dirt that bounced away from the plate. Steinberger tried to score from third, however Hartwick got the ball and made a perfect flip to Cautero at the plate for the second out. Four pitches later, Jorge Pardo (West New York, NJ / Memorial) launched a fly ball to deep center. Boggi tracked the ball down near the warning track and seemingly made the catch, however the ball fell out of his glove and while falling down he managed to keep the ball from hitting the ground twice before grabbing hold of it for the out.

Evangelist's solo home run to lead off the eighth inning, his fifth of the season, gave Montclair a comfortable lead at 9-5, however NJCU would rally in the ninth.

Rob Gonzalez (Brick, NJ / Brick Memorial) singled and stole second. He would go to third on a base hit and scored as Kristopher Brus (Parlin, NJ / Sayreville War Memorial) singled to right field. Colon followed with and RBI single to right to make the score 9-7 and NJCU had runners at the corners with one out. Reliever SEAN HILLE (Edison, NJ / St. Joseph's (Metuchen)) got a big strike out for the second out before giving way to Shan. In line for his first save of the season, Shan needed three pitches to close the door as Montclair escaped with the two-run victory.

Freshman righthander GIOVANNI CARABALLO (Elizabeth, NJ / Elizabeth) picked up the win in relief as he went 2 2/3 innings allowing a run and one hit, striking out five and walking two as he is now 3-0. Thomas Vermazen (San Diego, CA/ Point Loma) took the loss as he fell to 2-1. NJCU deployed a committee to the mound as 10 different pitchers were used with the Gothic Knights having to play five conference games in the next three days.

After Montclair State held leads of 1-0 and 2-1 early on, the Gothic Knights tied the game in the third as Colon ripped an RBI double down the right-field line to forge a 2-2 tie. NJCU would take its first lead of the game in the fifth scoring three times. Colon singled up the middle to make the score 3-2 and Steinberger greeted Caraballo's first pitch for a two-run home run as New Jersey City went up 5-2. It was Steinberger's fourth home run of the year.

Montclair State answered right back in the bottom of the fifth scoring three times with two out. MIKE ERCOLANO (Vernon, NJ / Vernon) walked and came all the way around to score as Boggi sliced a triple up the right-center gap. ED KLOEPPING (Pennsville, NJ / Pennsville) walked and was replaced by McGraw at first base. JASON LOPEZ (West New York, NJ / Memorial) then blasted a two-run double to right as the game was knotted up for third time.

Evangelist, Boggi, McGraw, Lopez and ZACHARY BROWN (Green Village, NJ / Morristown) all had two hits for the Red Hawks, who registered 14 in the contest. Brus also finished 3-for-5 for NJCU while Gonzalez and Michael Fiorentino (Point Pleasant Beach, NJ / Point Pleasant Beach) each had two hits as the Gothic Knights had 13.

Both teams are back in action on Friday, April 17. Montclair State is at Pioneer Park in Wayne, NJ to face William Paterson while NJCU hosts Kean University at the Gerrity Complex with each contest beginning at 3:30 pm.