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Friday, March 14, 2008
IN CALIFORNIA OPENER, BASEBALL SWAMPS RUTGERS-CAMDEN
Led by Shawn Gilblair (2 HRs), Warriors swat seven home runs in 25-6 victory
CLAREMONT, Calif. -- In a nine-run third inning, junior Shawn Gilblair (Windham) and freshman Andrew Dewing (Swampscott, MA) hit back-to-back home runs and senior Ismael Bolorin (Manchester) later added the team’s third home run of the inning as baseball routed Rutgers University-Camden, 25-6, Friday afternoon in the opening game of its California spring trip in a game played at Bill Arce Field on the Claremont-Mudd-Scripps Colleges campus.
It was the first meeting ever between the two programs.
Eastern (3-1) hit seven home runs in the game – the most ever allowed by Rutgers-Camden (4-3) in a game and two shy of the Eastern game record for home runs in a game. First-year players Travis Bass (West Hartford), Pat Smith (Milford, PA) and Dewing hit their first career home runs. Gilblair hit his second home run in four games – a two-run shot – in the third and Dewing followed with a solo blast. Bolorin later connected for his first career home run – a three-run blast – as the Warriors took a 9-2 lead after three innings.
In a seven-run fifth inning, sophomore Melvin Castillo (Danbury) and Gilblair socked consecutive home runs to make it 17-2 – giving Gilblair the second multiple-HR game of his career. Castillo and Gilblair were both named NCAA Division III All-Americas last season.
Junior righty Jimmy Jagodzinski (Greenwich) went the first five innings for his first win of the year after an opening loss. Jagodzinski, who had a personal nine-game winning streak snapped in a season-opening loss March 3 when he was charged with four unearned runs, fanned eight and walked none. He gave up four hits and two (earned) runs. Freshman righty Ronnie Newkirk (New Milford) gave up one hit and one unearned run in one inning in his debut.
Ranked No. 12 in Division III, Eastern faces Ithaca College at 1 p.m. ET and Rutgers-Newark at 6:30 p.m. ET Saturday. Ithaca is rated No. 19 in Division III.
Eastern Conn. 25, Rutgers-Camden 6
Rutgers-Camden (4-3) 200 001 021 -- 6 11 5
Eastern Conn. (3-1) 009 172 06x -- 25 24 1
Damien Wright (1-2), Michael Kondrath (3), Angelo Marchiano (5), Dan Pimiani (6), James Diamond (8), John Diamond (8) and Paul Painter. Jimmy Jagodzinski (1-1), Ronnie Newkirk (6), Michael Montanari (7), Jake Slate (9) and Andrew Magliola, Chris Cannata (7), Rob Chmiel (9). 2B-Scott Fruits, Shawn Park (®, Cesar Gutierrez, Jon Dalton, Trey Bongiovanni, Tristan Hobbes (E); HR-Steve Myers (1), Jamie Williams (1) ®, Shawn Gilblair 2 (3), Ismael Bolorin (1), Melvin Castillo (1), Travis Bass (1), Pat Smith (1), Andrew Dewing (1) (E).
