Union, N.J. (4/25/13) – Senior Kevin Herget picked up his sixth win of the season as the #2 Kean University baseball team cruised past Richard Stockton College by the final of 9-2 Thursday afternoon in NJAC action.
The Cougars improve their record to 29-6 overall and 13-2 in conference play. Kean holds a three game lead in the NJAC standings with three games to play. The Ospreys fall to 20-16 this spring with an 8-7 mark in the NJAC.
Herget stands with a 6-2 record after tossing eight innings allowing just one run and one walk along the way. He scattered eight singles and struck out two. Herget has now pitched the most innings of any Cougar, as he finished the day one out shy of 316 innings, surpassing the previous mark of 307.2.
Kean jumped on the board with five runs in the first three innings of play to pace play. Hot hitting Nick Ramagli lined a triple in his first at-bat in the second to get things started. Rookie Salvatore Taormina would line a single into the gap for an RBI and quick 1-0 lead. Freshman Ryan Reitmeyer followed with an RBI double and junior Shane Alvarez rounded out the second frame scoring with an RBI groundout and a 3-0 Kean advantage.
In the third it was Taormina again with a two-out RBI single up the middle. Two more singles up the middle made it 5-0 in favor of Kean.
That would be all Herget would need as only one Osprey reached third in the first seven innings of play.
Richard Stockton broke through in the eighth, breaking up the shutout on an RBI single from George Eisenhart.
Junior James DiPiazza suffered the loss for Stockton. DiPiazza (4-3) allowed five runs and seven hits in two and two thirds innings of work.
Offensively, Taormina and Reitmeyer each collected three hits and two RBI apiece. Alvarez added two RBI of his own as the Cougars pounded out 15 hits on the afternoon. Pinch-hitter Matt Calabria recorded the only extra-base hit for the Ospreys, a double in the ninth.
The two teams will be right back at it on Friday in Galloway, N.J. with first pitch slated for 3:30 p.m.