Montclair, NJ – Senior catcher Dylan Habeeb had three hits, a homer and drove in six runs as William Paterson gained a split of its home-and-home series against Montclair State with a 21-10 victory at Yogi Berra Stadium on Friday afternoon.
Junior second baseman Colin Lombardo homered and added two RBI as the Pioneers (21-6) moved back into second place in the NJAC at 12-4 heading into Saturday's regular-season finale at home against Stockton.
Sophomore Sam Angelo went 2-for-3 with a home run and three RBI for the Red Hawks (19-6), who had their four-game winning streak snapped. Montclair fell to 11-5 in conference play, one game ahead of fourth-place Kean University (10-6). MSU concludes its regular season on Saturday at #21 Rowan, which clinched the No. 1 seed in the upcoming conference tournament.
William Paterson put six runs on the board in the second inning to break up a scoreless contest. Lombardo plated the first with run-scoring single and Frankie Deane followed with a two-run double for a 3-0 lead. Steven DiGirolamo singled home two more runs before Habeeb's RBI double put the Pioners up 6-0.
MSU would get two back in the bottom of the second as Michael Murphy scored on an error and Hayden Reyes collected an RBI single cutting the deficit to 6-2. WPU answered with a four-run fourth, plating all of its runs after two were out. Habeeb tripled in two and Yelin singled home another before Dan Carter's RBI single widened the lead to 10-3.
The Pioneers blew the game open in the fifth with five runs. Matt Ferrara had a two-run single with Habeeb cracking a three-run, opposite-field homer to right for a 15-4 lead.
Right-hander Darmany Rivas earned the victory as he went the first five innings with Jason Rivera notching the last 12 outs to earn the rare four-inning save. Lefthander Ben Levine (1-1) took the loss for Montclair State.
DiGirolamo went 5-for-7 and scored four times for WPU, which registered 23 hits in the game. Ferrara and Deane had three hits each.
Andrew Ollwerther was 3-for-5 for the Red Hawks.