May 5, 2007 - Iona 3 Rider 1 / Rider 10 Iona 3
May 5, 2007
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
College Baseball
Iona College 3, Rider University 1
Rider University 10, Iona College 3
LAWRENCEVILLE—The good news is that Rider scored 11 runs on 21 hits Saturday. The bad news is that 10 of those 11 runs came in the second game, as the Broncs split a Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference doubleheader with Iona Saturday. “Since we lost game one, obviously we’ll take the split, but this almost puts us in a must-win situation tomorrow,” said Rider head coach Barry Davis.
In the second game, Rider (16-23, 9-10 MAAC) had 14 hits, led by freshmen Nick Wojnowski (Baldwin, MD/Calvert Hall) and Garrett Rugg (Langhorne, PA/Neshaminy), who each had three hits and an RBI, and they scored three runs between them. “Rugg and Wojo had big days for us,” Davis said.
Wojnowski had five hits in the doubleheader. “He’s been swinging the bat well in practice so we put him in there and he did a good job for us,” Davis said. “Calvert Hall is a good program down in Maryland. He has a bright future with us if he works hard. Hopefully he’ll keep working hard. He seems to be a kid who will work hard.”
“I was a little surprised when I saw my name in the line up,” said Wojnowski, who has started just 17 games before Saturday. “Once I saw I was starting I knew I had to get the job done. We came out in the second game knowing we had to win,” Wojnowski said. “We came out fired up and started out good and just kept going with it. I haven’t had a great season (.250 batting average coming into today) so I decided today to really try to work up the middle and four of my five hits were up the middle.”
Wojnowski raised his batting average to .296 heading into Sunday’s third game of the series with Iona.
The Broncs jumped out to a 3-0 lead in the first inning on an RBI single by junior David Hayes (Sunrise, Fla) and a two-run single by sophomore Jamie Hayes (Sunrise, Fla./Piper), and led 6-1 after two innings. “We got off to a good start, scoring early,” Davis said, “and we were able to keep doing it.”
Rider broke the game open with a four-run fourth inning, as Rugg and sophomore Mo Williams (Tinton Falls/Monmouth Regional) had RBI singles.
Rider sophomore pitcher Jimmer Kennedy (Levittown, PA/Holy Ghost Prep) recorded his third win, allowing two earned runs while striking out eight. “Jim threw fine, as we expected him to,” Davis said. “He had a good fastball today and was able to challenge them.”
In the first game, sophomore pitcher Mike Petrowski (Hamilton Square/Steinert) allowed just two earned runs in nine innings of work. “Mike pitched another great game,” Davis said. “Two weekends in a row he’s only given up three runs and lost. If we’re only going to score one run for him it makes it tough.”
Rider could manage just one run in the second inning off of winning pitcher Marty Hand, who has four of Iona’s 14 victories this season. “Their kid pitched well,” Davis said. “We left too many guys out there.” Rider left six runners on base in the first four innings of the first game.
Wojnowski and junior Jon Leise (Woodbury/West Deptford) each had two of Rider’s seven hits in the first game. “In the first game we just didn’t get it done, offensively,” Wojnowski said.
Red-shirt freshman Matt McCollum (Tabernacle/Shawnee) had two hits in the second game and three hits on the day, and has six hits in his last three games.
Rider will host the third game of the series with Iona Sunday at 12 noon. “We’re going to need to win tomorrow,” Davis said.
-RU-
