Montclair, NJ – Senior lefthander fired a no-hitter, striking out 10 as Rutgers-Camden blanked Montclair State 7-0 in the first of a New Jersey Athletic Conference home-and-home series at Yogi Berra Stadium on Thursday afternoon.
Sophomore leftfielder Joe Brooks (Blackwood, NJ / Gloucester Catholic) drove in three runs as the Scarlet Raptors (18-13, 12-3 NJAC) snapped a two-game losing streak but more importantly took over first place in the conference with the victory. Rutgers-Camden is a game ahead of No. 7 Kean and 22nd-ranked Rowan.
Montclair State fell to 15-15 overall with the loss, 8-7 in the NJAC as the Red Hawks remained in fifth place in the league standings.
Singer upped his record to 4-2 as he worked his way around four walks in the 124-pitch performance. Singer faced two batters over the minimum as he got help from his defense which also turned a pair of double plays in the contest.
Rutgers-Camden got the only run it would need in the top of the first. Brett Tenuto (Audubon, NJ / Gloucester Catholic) reached on a three-base error to open the game and scored two batters later on a ground out by Brooks, who added to the lead in the third with another ground out making the score 2-0.
Montclair State would mount its only threat against Singer in the bottom of the third. Hector Gonzalez drew a leadoff walk and reached second on an error while stealing. Ryan Long and both runners moved up to second and third on a passed ball. Singer then retired Keith Murphy on a ground ball to third to end the inning.
The Scarlet Raptors broke the game open in the fifth inning with four runs, all of which came with two out and was aided by two MSU errors which made three of the runs unearned. Brooks drove in the first run with an RBI single scoring Jon Theckston (Gloucester City, NJ / Gloucester Catholic), who began the rally with a double. An error allowed Brooks to score for a 4-0 lead and the Raptors added two more on RBIs by Connor Hall (Delran, NJ / Delran) and Pedro Perez (Burlington, NJ / Burlington City).
Rutgers-Camden plated its final run in the ninth as Brooks tripled with one out and scored on a base hit by Bobby Romano (Vineland, NJ / Vineland).
Theckston and Romano each finished with two hits for the Scarlet Raptors.
Montclair State's Donald Cusick took the loss despite allowing only two earned runs (six total) and seven hits in six innings. Cusick (1-4) struck out four.
The two teams meet on Friday, April 24 at Campbell's Field in Camden, NJ at 3:30 pm.