CAMDEN, N.J. (March 27, 2014) – Senior righthander Tommy Potts (Bordentown, NJ/Bordentown Regional) hurled a perfect game for 6-2/3 innings on his way to eight innings of two-hit ball as the Rutgers University-Camden baseball team defeated Penn State-Brandywine, 9-0, in a non-conference game here Thursday.
The Scarlet Raptors improve to 8-4-1 with their third straight win, while the Nittany Lions fall to 4-8.
Potts was masterful for the second straight start as he raised his record to 2-0 and extended his scoreless streak to 16 innings to start the season. He allowed just two singles, didn't walk a batter and struck out 10. He had a perfect game going until Brandywine sophomore third baseman Tom Osenbach (Newtown Square, PA/West Chester) ripped a single to center with two outs in the seventh inning. The only other Brandywine hit was a single by sophomore leftfielder Dan McMenamin (Springfield, PA/Springfield), who immediately was caught off first base on a relay throw after rounding the bag too far. Potts faced only one batter over the minimum in his eight scoreless innings before sophomore Kyle Gaff (Gloucester, NJ/Gloucester) nailed down the shutout with a perfect ninth inning, getting his last two outs on called third strikes.
Potts, who pitched a four-hit shutout in a 10-0, eight-inning win over Alfred State in his first outing of the year March 19, raised his career strikeouts to 137, tying Bob Diepold (1999-2001) for 10th on the program's career list. The victory was Potts' ninth of his Raptor career.
Offensively, Rutgers-Camden gave Potts all the runs he needed with single tallies in the first two innings against Brandywine starter Andrew Karahalis (Woodlyn, PA/Ridley). In the first inning, the Raptors loaded the bases on singles by sophomore third baseman Brett Tenuto (Audubon, NJ/Gloucester Catholic) and freshman designated hitter Joe Brooks (Blackwood, NJ/Gloucester Catholic), followed by a one-out walk to freshman leftfielder Doug Carter (Union, NJ/Union). With two outs, sophomore second baseman Joe Sigismondi (Blackwood, NJ/Highland Regional) was hit by a pitch, forcing home Tenuto with the run.
In the second inning, freshman catcher Jon Theckston (Gloucester, NJ/Gloucester Catholic) had a one-out single, stole second base and scored on a two-out single by Brooks.
The Scarlet Raptors broke things open with two runs in the fifth, coming on a two-run double by junior first baseman Connor Hall (Delran, NJ/Delran) and a five-run sixth inning. The big sixth inning featured three hits, a walk, a run-scoring wild pitch and two Penn State-Brandywine errors. Tenuto and Carter each had RBI singles, while senior rightfielder Adrian Gonzalez (Pennsauken, NJ/Pennsauken) and Hall both added sacrifice flies.
For the game, Brooks went 3-for-3 with two runs and one RBI as he stretched his hitting streak to 11 games, tying Gonzalez for the longest on the team this season. Gonzalez, who went 0-for-2 with one run and one RBI, saw his 11-game streak snapped. Hall, meanwhile, went 1-for-3 with three RBIs to stretch his current hitting streak to eight games.
Tenuto went 2-for-5 with two runs and one RBI and Theckston scored two runs in his 1-for-3 day.
The Scarlet Raptors return to action Saturday when they open their New Jersey Athletic Conference schedule with an 11 a.m. doubleheader at Kean University. Kean is ranked No. 4 nationally in both the latest ABCA and the D3baseball.com Top 25 polls.