Union, N.J. (4/9/11) – Junior Lee Cavico went a combined 6-for-8 with his third homerun of the season as the Kean University baseball team swept rival Montclair State University, 9-3 & 2-0, on a sunny, spring Saturday afternoon in NJAC baseball action.
With today's wins #4/5 Kean improves to 22-4 overall and 5-1 in conference play while the losses drop MSU to 11-8 overall and 3-3 in NJAC action.
Game One
Kean got their bats going in their first at-bat, all with two outs, as Cavico recorded his first hit of the afternoon. Senior Ken Gregory followed with a single of his own and junior Dylan Laguna drove in today's first run with an RBI single. Catcher Sean Kelly delivered a 2 RBI single to round out the scoring in the first frame.
MSU cut the lead to one with two in their half of the third. Sophomore Matthew Moreno led things off with a single and quickly moved to third after senior Andrew Himmelfarb's double. Moreno would later score off a wild pitch. Later in the inning, junior Kevin Bond lofted a sacrifice fly putting the score at 3-2.
The Cougars responded with a single run in the bottom of the same inning as Cavico led off with a solo shot to left. Kean then added to their lead with three runs in the fourth and two more in the sixth.
Southpaw Ryan Zamorsky earned the win. Zamorsky (2-1) tossed eight innings allowing three runs, one earned, and 10 hits. He struck out four and walked one. Senior Chris Cirlincione shut down the Red Hawks one-two-three in the ninth. Sophomore Zach Brown suffered the loss for the Red Hawks. Brown (3-1) allowed seven runs and nine hits in five innings of work.
Offensively Cavico was 4-for-4 with two RBI and two runs scored for the Cougars while senior Michael Boggi, freshman Cody Pace and Moreno each finished with two hits for MSU.
Game Two
After a combined 21 hits in game one, game two spotlighted a tight pitchers' duel as both starters went the distance allowing just 11 total hits.
Sophomore Kevin Herget (5-0) edged southpaw Dylan Papa (0-1) in the matchup coming up with a 2-0 victory. Herget allowed just five hits in the complete game shutout while fanning six and walking two. Papa allowed two runs on six hits while striking out five and walking two.
The Cougars scratched across single runs in the fourth and sixth to hold on for the win. In the fourth, Cavico led off the inning with a double and moved to third on a wild pitch. He would score what would be the winning run off an RBI groundout by senior Kyle Walker. Kean added one more in the sixth as it was Gregory's turn to record a double and move to third on a wild pitch. He would later score on a sacrifice fly off the bat of junior Eddie Jennings.
Junior Vinny Galya and Cavico each had two hits for the Cougars while sophomore Jason Chesterman added two hits and a double for the Red Hawks.
Kean enjoys a nice break and returns to action on Thursday, April 14th when they host New Jersey City University at 3:30 p.m.