Box Score
Ewing, NJ – The right arm of sophomore Connor Henderson (Monmouth Junction, NJ/South Brunswick) and the potent bat of senior Jeff Toth (Parlin, NJ/Sayreville) led The College of New Jersey (13-12-1, 5-3 NJAC) to its second conference win in as many days as the Lions toppled Rutgers University-Camden 12-3 on Thursday.
Henderson (4-0) tossed a complete game spreading out seven hits and striking out seven. The right-hander used a running two-seam fastball and mixed his pitches effectively to keep the Scarlet Raptor hitters in check limiting their offense to seven hits.
Toth belted his fourth and fifth home runs of the year, knocked in four runs and scored three times while raising his season's batting average to .505. The senior shortstop was economical with his swings as he took the bat off his shoulder just twice to launch breaking pitches over the left field fence at George Ackerman Park. Toth also walked twice and was hit by a pitch.
The Lions jumped on Rutgers University-Camden (7-17, 2-6 NJAC) in the opening frame when lead-off hitter Adam Tussey (Brooklawn, NJ/Gloucester) reached on error and James Ruzich (Verona, NJ/Montclair Kimberly Academy) walked. Toth hammered the first pitch he saw to give the Lions a 3-0 lead. TCNJ made it 4-0 in the second when Ryan Anzelone (Vernon, NJ/Vernon Township) legged out an infield single, Tussey followed with a single to left, advanced on pass ball and scored on Ruzich's sacrifice fly.
TCNJ broke the game open in the third inning with four runs on three hits. Junior Chris Esperon (Union, NJ/Union Catholic) remained hot knocking in a run with the first of his two hits on the afternoon and catcher Mike Galeotafiore (Brick, NJ/Christian Brothers Academy) ripped a two-run double to right-center field. Anzelone followed with an RBI single to left field as the junior enjoyed a productive day at the plate with three hits and three runs batted in.
Henderson faced just 23 batters over the first seven innings, allowing only one Scarlet Raptor to reach third base. Rutgers touched Henderson for three runs in the eighth on RBI singles by Kyle Ballay (Delran, NJ/Delran) and John Hydock (Medford, NJ/Shawnee). Ballay had two hits and knocked in two, and junior Steve Myers (Millville, NJ/Millville) extended his hitting streak to nine games with a leadoff single.
TCNJ hosts Ramapo College tomorrow, April 10 in another conference game at Ackerman Park. The Scarlet Raptors return home to continue NJAC play to take on Richard Stockton College. Both games are set for 3:30 p.m.
