Baseball Bows Out Of NJAC Tournament
By Ryan Gaydos
@KUTowerSports
Two stunning upsets Saturday ended the Kean University baseball team’s chances of winning another New Jersey Athletic Conference tournament championship. It was something extremely unexpected as the Cougars went down early Saturday morning to Rowan 4-3 then turned around and were shocked by Ramapo 6-5 losing in the bottom of the ninth in that game.
In the 4-3 loss to Rowan, the Cougars let it slip away from them in the second inning when Profs’ outfielder Nick Kreiger capped off a four-run inning with a two-RBI single. The four runs in that inning were enough to carry the Profs to the championship game and force the Cougars to play one more in the afternoon.
Kean got RBIs from Matt Meleo, Ryan Kelley and Michael Kendall. Starter Charles Thielmann picked up his second loss of the season allowing four runs on 10 hits in a complete game.
In the second game, Ramapo had two outs on them before shortstop Nick Ramagli committed an error to allow Roadrunners’ Dave Jacob to reach base. After Jacob successfully stole second and reached third on a throwing error from catcher James Lyczkowski, Chris Werr singled home Jacob to win the game to setup an NJAC championship between Rowan and Ramapo.
Vinny Zanfordino was charged with the loss in the back and forth game that featured a few lead changes and outfielder Shane Alvarez pushing two runners across the plate in the game. It was not enough as Kean bowed out of the tournament.
The next scheduled game for the Cougars is on the road against York College Wednesday.