Union, NJ – The No. 2 Montclair State baseball team was clipped by No. 6 Ramapo College 3-1 in the New Jersey Athletic Conference Tournament Tuesday afternoon.
The Red Hawks (31-11) will await to see if they earned a Pool C bid to the NCAA Tournament during the Selection Show on ncaa.com Monday at noon. Ramapo (17-23-1) moves on to face William Paterson University tonight at 7 pm.
Left-hander
PATRICK CUCCURULLO earned the start for Montclair and struck out the side in the bottom of the first. The Red Hawks got on the board in the top of second, starting with a leadoff single from
JORDEN JURKIEWICZ.
MICHAEL MURPHY walked and the two runners moved a base on a sacrifice bunt from
ANTHONY GUARINO.
JASON MOORE lined a single into left-center that scored Jurkiewicz and gave MSU the 1-0 advantage.
The Red Hawks looked poised to add to their lead in the third as an
ANDREW OLLWERTHER double placed runners on second and third with two outs. A walk to Jurkiewicz loaded the bases but Murphy struck out to prevent any damage. Cuccurullo fanned seven over the first three innings and didn't allow a hit until the fourth which was when Ramapo tied things up. Sean Donaghue delivered a one-out double that scored a run to tie things at one.
Cuccurullo escaped a second and third one-out jam in the fifth by getting a strikeout and foul to end the frame. The Roadrunners took their first lead of the day as a one-out single from Joe Wisniewski brought in Matt Lalomia. Reliever
NICHOLAS SEFICK shut down Ramapo in the seventh, and Montclair had another golden opportunity to scratch a run across in the eighth. Ollwerther walked with one out and advanced to third on a double to right-center by Jurkiewicz. They were unable to capitalize with reliever Will Paoli notching the final two outs on a groundout and strikeout.
Ramapo added to an insurance run on a solo home run by Matt Carovillano in the bottom of the eighth to finish off scoring. MSU put a runner on base in the ninth with two down, but the final out was recorded on a foul out to first base.
Jurkiewicz, Norton, and Cosentino had two hits in the setback while Cuccurullo matched his career-high with 10 strikeouts.
