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Monday, March 3, 2008
ERRORS COSTLY AS BASEBALL DROPS SEASON-OPENER
Defending champion Kean University scores five unearned runs, fans 16 in 9-2 victory
PISCATAWAY, N.J. -- For the second straight season, baseball committed five errors in its season-opener, this time falling to 2007 NCAA Division III national champion Kean University, 9-2, Monday afternoon at Bainton Field on the campus of Rutgers University.
Coming off two losses Sunday to unranked Manhattanville College, Kean (2-2) capitalized on five Eastern errors to score five unearned runs and snap the personal nine-game winning streak of Eastern junior righty Jimmy Jagodzinski (Greenwich). Over the first four innings, Jagodzinski (0-1) was charged with five runs – four of which were unearned. The Cougars capitalized on a throwing error that opening the fourth inning to score three unearned runs and move out to a 5-1 lead, then scored three runs over its final two at-bats to ice the victory.
Kean is ranked third nationally, Eastern ninth.
In last year’s season-opener, the Warriors survived five errors to post an 8-4 win over Whittier College in Whittier, Calif.
Senior second baseman Maikel De La Rosa and senior leftfielder Eric Ammirata – the top two hitters in the Kean order – combined for five of their team’s 12 hits, and drove in two runs each. Batting leadoff, De La Rosa tripled twice off Jagodzinski and scored both times.
Kean sophomore righty Joe Bartlinski (1-0), who started last year’s national championship game (without earning a decision), spaced five hits while fanning 13 and walking only two and gave up both Eastern runs. Junior righty Brandon Aich fanned three more Eastern batters over the final two innings to give the Cougars their second win over the Warriors in the last two years. Last year, Kean spoiled Eastern’s home-opener with a 5-3 victory at the ECSU Baseball Stadium. Bartlinksi gained that win, as well, by allowing only one run on five hits in 4 2/3 innings as the second of three Kean pitchers.
None of Eastern’s four pitchers in the game walked a batter. Junior righty James Kukucka (Vernon) gave up only two hits in three innings after replacing Jagodzinski to start the fifth. In his varsity debut, junior righty Aaron Henry (Killingly) allowed a hit in one-third of an inning in the eighth. Additional Eastern players making their varsity debut were sophomores Mike Palo (Brookfield) and Chris Wojick (Montville), and freshman Andrew Dewing (Swampscott, MA) and Jim Schult (Wappingers Falls, NY). Wojick is a first-semester transfer from the University of Maine. Both Dewing and Schult recorded their first collegiate hits, with Dewing driving in Eastern’s second run with a single in the fifth and Schult scoring the team’s first run in the second on a single by senior second baseman Zack Thomas (East Haddam).
Eastern sophomore shortstop Melvin Castillo (Danbury), a third-team All-America last year as a freshman, reached safely in all five plate appearances. He had a double and two singles, and also walked once and scored on Dewing’s single in the fifth after getting hit by a pitch.
Junior first baseman Tristan Hobbes (Utica, NY) collected 17 putouts in the game – two shy of the Eastern program game record.
In addition to Bartlinski, Kean started five position players from last year’s national championship win over Emory University.
Eastern visits Stevens Tech Wednesday at 3 p.m. Junior lefty Shawn Gilblair (Windham) or senior righty Joe Esposito (East Haven) are expected to open on the mound.
Kean U. 9, Eastern Conn. 2
Eastern Conn. (0-1) 010 010 000 -- 2 6 5
Kean (2-2) 110 310 12x -- 9 12 2
Jimmy Jagodzinski (0-1), James Kukucka (5), Jake Slate (8), Aaron Henry (8), and Chris Wojick, Andrew Magliola (8). Joe Bartlinski (1-0), Brandon Aich (8) and Kevin O’Neill. 2B-Melvin Castillo (E); 3B-Maikel De La Rosa 2, Bryan Burke (K).
