Box Score
Ewing, NJ…The No. 9 ranked Lions of The College of New Jersey tallied an impressive 11-0 win over Widener University on Wednesday afternoon in George Ackerman Park as rookie pitcher Sean Stewart (Howell, NJ/Freehold Township) starred. Making his first career start, Stewart struck out the first six batters he faced and cruised to his first career win after six innings of two hit scoreless work. With the win, the Lions now stand at 25-8 overall, riding an eight-game win streak. Widener drops to 22-11 on the season.
The victory marked the 699th career win for the Lions’ head coach Rick Dell, who is now in his 26th season as head coach of the Lion baseball program.
Dell brought a career record of 674-320-10 into the 2007 season and is now poised to become just the 10th active coach in Division III baseball history to record his 700th career win. A top the Division III Active Coach list is Eastern Connecticut State University’s Bill Holowaty with a 1,179-439-5 record in 38 seasons. Headlining the victory list of all-time Division III coaches (active or retired) is Gordie Gillespie of Lewis, who in 54 years of coaching entered the 2007 season with 1,709 wins (1709-873-1), while Dell would become the 16th coach in Division III with 700 or more wins joining fellow NJAC coach, Jeff Albies of William Paterson University who now holds a career record of (841-386-13) in 33 years of coaching. Dell will make his first attempt for career win on Thursday when he faces Albie’s Pioneers at TCNJ in a 3:30 p.m. NJAC match-up at Ackerman Park.
With the success of the 2007 season, the Lions have now won 20 or more games under current head coach Rick Dell 23 different times, including the last 10 consecutive years. In addition, TCNJ has surpassed the 30 win plateau on 10 different seasons, including a school record 38 wins last year.
For the game, TCNJ’s four pitchers combined for 14 strikeouts, while earning the team’s fourth shutout win of the season. Stewart finished with nine strikeouts and is now 1-0 after scattering just two hits in the game.
Among the offensive stars for the Lions, junior short stop Jeff Toth (Parlin, NJ/Sayerville War Memorial) was 4-5 with three RBI’s after adding a double and his fifth homerun of the season. TCNJ’s senior catcher Gerard Haran (Matawan, NJ/Old Bridge) finished the contest with three more RBI’s elevating his career mark to 203, an active Lion school mark. He went 2-3 with three RBI’s and added his 54th career double, another TCNJ career mark he holds.
Senior Andrew Cosgrove (Lebanon, NJ/North Hunterdon) drove in a pair of runs and collected a double as well, while freshman Chris Esperon (Union, NJ/Union Catholic) added a pinch hit solo homerun in the bottom of the eighth inning to help the Lions finish with 12 hits off the Prides’ nine different pitchers.
Widener used an inning rotation for their pitching staff, with the exception of the fifth inning when sophomore John Gillam (Chester Springs, PA/Downingtown East) gave up three earned runs off no hits with only one out and was replaced by sophomore Anthony Carter (Bensalem, PA/Archbishop Ryan). Freshman Tim Kenney (Clementon, NJ/Paul VI) made the start and took the loss to drop to 0-1 after one run off one walk in the first inning, in what proved to be the winning run for the Lions.
Offensively for the Pride, pinch hitter freshman Joe Peticca (Linwood, PA/Chichester) provided a spark off the bench going 2-2, while junior catcher Matt Fischer (Bensalem, PA/Conwell-Egan Catholic) broke up Stewart’s no –hitter bid in the fifth inning with a single to centerfield and was 1-4.
