WAYNE, N.J. (April 13, 2017) – The Rutgers University-Newark baseball team continued to roll in New Jersey Athletic Conference (NJAC) play, earning a 9-5 road win at William Paterson University Thursday afternoon.
 
The win is the fifth in a row inside the NJAC as the Scarlet Raiders improve to 5-2 in the conference and 16-6-1 overall. William Paterson drops to 5-2 in the NJAC and 12-10-2 overall. The two teams will play again at Paterson Friday afternoon at 3:30 p.m.
 
Rutgers-Newark was able to break a 4-4 stalemate in the seventh inning with a single run, and the Scarlet Raiders scored four times in the eighth.
 
In the seventh, freshman JC Ball led off with a triple, and he came into score on a double off the bat of sophomore Ryan Zucker.
 
Reliever Vincent Enea came on for starter Dominick Fazio in the bottom half of the frame and was able to work around a walk and a single to keep Newark in front.
 
Rutgers extended in the eighth, scoring four big insurance runs on five hits. Juniors Anthony Perconte and Adam Tricarico singled to put two on with one out, and freshman Colin Powers singled home Perconte to give the Scarlet Raiders 6-4 edge. A bunt base hit from Ball allowed Tricarico to score, and after a walk to Zucker loaded the bases, junior Justin Marks came through with a back-breaking two-run double to right-center.
 
"Justin is on fire right now," said Head Coach Mark Rizzi. "Since we moved him to the No. 2 spot he's having great at-bats, seeing the ball well. He just missed a grand slam today."
 
Junior Dan Murphy worked around two walks to get out of the eighth, and sophomore Luis Rojas allowed a harmless run in the ninth as the Scarlet Raiders pocketed their fifth NJAC win in seven tries.
 
A productive groundout from senior Josh Cote allowed Zucker to cross with the first run of the game in the first inning, and a Cote sacrifice fly coupled with a two-run single from junior Ross Halkias made it a 4-1 game in the third.
 
William Paterson came back to tie, scoring a single run on the bottom of the third and two in the fifth.
 
Rutgers-Newark pounded out 16 hits and scored eight runs or more for the sixth-straight game and seventh time in eight outings. Zucker went 3-for-4 with two runs scored, a walk and an RBI and Ball went 3-for-4 with three runs scored, a walk and an RBI. Marks was 2-for-5 with a run and two RBI, Halkias was 2-for-5 with two RBI and Perconte finished 2-for-4 with a walk and run scored. Tricarico tallied two hits in three at-bats with walk and run scored as well.
 
Fazio picked up the win in a strong start for the Scarlet Raiders. The lefty went six innings and struck out five, giving up four runs (three earned) on seven hits to move to 2-0 on the season.
 
"Dom (Fazio) gave us six big innings today," added Rizzi. "After that, our bullpen did a great job closing it out which was nice to see."
 
Outfielder Mike Abate and Anthony Hoagland each had two hits and two runs scored to pace a nine-hit William Paterson attack.