FLEMINGTON, NJ (NJCUGothicKnights.com) | New Jersey City University entered its May 2 non-conference game with Centenary College 0-20 when tied or trailing (0-17) after eight innings this season and when the Cyclones took a 7-6 cushion to the ninth inning after the sixth lead change or tie of the game, history was not on the side of the Gothic Knights.
But freshman left fielder ERIC GIORDANO (Metuchen, NJ/JFK-Iselin) demonstrated why he is just the sixth rookie named to the All-New Jersey Athletic Conference team in the last five years with his second two-out RBI single of the game to tie it in the top of the ninth before NJCU scored go-ahead runs on a passed ball and error. Junior left-handed ace DELIO COUTINHO (Colonia, NJ/Colonia), the nation's No. 6 ranked pitcher in strikeouts per nine innings (12.00) allowed two singles in the bottom of the ninth that put the tying runs in scoring position but showed resolve by battling back to strikeout the final two batters of the game as NJCU rallied for a 9-7 win over Centenary at Diamond Nation.
NJCU (12-25) defeated a Colonial States Athletic Conference school for the second time this week while Centenary, playing its second game of the day, fell to 18-16. Centenary hit three home runs in the loss.
Giordano extended his hitting streak to 13 games and notched his team-high 17th multiple-hit game of the season, batting 2-for-4 with two RBIs and a run scored while junior first basemanALEX WEINSTEIN (Colonia, NJ/JFK-Iselin) scored three runs and was 2-for-5 with one RBI in a leadoff role.
Junior center fielder/pitcher MICHAEL MARTUCCI (Bayonne, NJ/Saint Peter's Prep)moved into 10th place in school history in career hits with 142, batting 2-for-5 with a run scored. Freshman second base NICK RUSCINGNO (Teaneck, NJ/Teaneck) had one hit to extend his hitting streak to 17 games—the longest streak by a Gothic Knight since Jose Fulgencio had his school and conference-record 40-game stretch between the 2007 and 2008 seasons.
Coutinho, the fourth pitcher used, became the third pitcher in school history and the first in 29 years to record 70 strikeouts in a season. The winner in relief (4-3) he struck out two, allowed two singles and one walk in 1.1 innings. He also extended NJCU's single-season school record for pickoffs to 18.