The New Jersey City University (NJCU) baseball team secured an 8-1 win over Hood College on Sunday at Frederick Community College. Sophomore pitcher Phil Kramer delivered a strong performance, pitching seven scoreless innings, allowing only three hits and striking out a career-high 12 batters. Collin Elam finished the game for NJCU, pitching the final two innings and recording four strikeouts while giving up one run.
NJCU took the lead in the third inning when Frandi Yunior Mosquea Mesa hit a triple and scored on Evan Hill’s groundout. The team added two more runs in the fourth inning after Nick Vaughn walked, Daniel Kapsch singled, and both advanced on stolen bases. A throwing error allowed Vaughn to score, followed by an RBI single from Mosquea Mesa.
In the fifth inning, Ray Gelok singled and later scored on a double by Jeremy Ricourt. The Knights increased their lead to 5-0 in the seventh after Gelok singled again and eventually scored on a sacrifice fly by Brandon Piacenza.
Three more runs came in the eighth as Kapsch walked, Brendan Baeza singled, and Thomas Ingallinera entered as a pinch runner. Both Ingallinera and Baeza scored on Mosquea Mesa’s third hit of the day. Mosquea Mesa later scored himself after consecutive groundouts.
Hood College managed to score once in the bottom of the eighth inning, but Elam struck out all three batters he faced in the ninth to secure NJCU’s first victory of the season.
Mosquea Mesa led NJCU offensively with three hits, three RBIs, two runs scored, a triple, and a stolen base. Ricourt and Gelok also had three hits each and contributed with RBIs.
NJCU will next play against Wilson College in Chambersburg, Pennsylvania.
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