Baseball Moving To Semifinals In NJAC Tournament
By Ryan Gaydos
@KUTowerSports
Coming into the New Jersey Athletic Conference baseball tournament, the Kean University Cougars are heavily favored to win the tournament and in the first round, the Cougars sent Kevin Herget to the mound to take on The College of New Jersey Lions. It was put up or shut up time for Kean.
Herget helped the No. 5 Cougars as he struck out 10 Lions, allowed three runs in eight innings en route to his seventh win of the season and his 28th win of his career as Kean won the game 8-3 to advance to the semifinals of the tournament. Herget’s 28th career win ties the all-time win mark for the school.
The scoring got started for Kean in the bottom of the first when Andy Lopez reached base but on an error from Lions’ outfielder Michael Murphy, Shane Alvarez was able to score with Lopez moving to third. In the next inning Alvarez doubled to score catcher James Lyczkowski.
Later in the game, Nick Ramagli, Joe O’Connor and Sal Taormina all contributed with RBIs to seal the deal for Kean.
The loss for TCNJ means that they will have to travel to Ramapo after Ramapo lost to William Paterson 6-1 on Tuesday as well.
Kean will face Richard Stockton Thursday after the Ospreys lost to Rowan 13-0. The Cougars were 1-1 against Richard Stockton this season after winning their game at home then losing to the Ospreys on the road.
All signs indicate that Charles Thielmann may get the start at Jim Hynes ’63 Stadium. The game will start at 3:30 P.M.