By Chris Morville
The Drew University baseball team went one-and-one this week with a loss against Rutgers-Newark and a win against St. Joseph’s-Brooklyn. The Rangers find themselves at 12-6 with a 1-2 mark in the Landmark Conference. This is Drew baseball’s best start to a season since the turn of the century.
Despite a brilliant start from pitcher Ryan Fitzpatrick (‘17), the Rangers fell 4-14 against out-of-conference opponent Rutgers-Newark. Fitzpatrick sat-down the first 13 batters before finally giving up a hit during the fifth inning. In the sixth, the Scarlet Raiders scored three runs on four hits to go up in the game 3-1. Fitzpatrick ended with 11 strikeouts with just three runs given up. Drew was able to put together a 4-3 lead off of efficient hitting from Marc Cohen (‘17) and Bryan Reagle (‘20) who picked up his first collegiate hit with an RBI single. However, Rutgers-Newark fired back with unstoppable offense, scoring 11 straight runs to end the game with a final score of 14-4.
Drew was able to bounce back from the tough loss against another out-of-conference opponent St. Joseph’s-Brooklyn on Wednesday afternoon by a score of 6-5. The game was gridlocked until the sixth inning thanks to solid pitching from Pete Violante (‘20). During the sixth, Drew was finally able to put together a lead and they never looked back. Mike Miraglia (‘17) laid down an RBI-bunt and Ryan Sabbag (‘18) drew a bases-loaded walk to make the game 6-5. Tommy Broyles (‘17) solidified the win for Drew with an absolutely brilliant close. He pitched two scoreless innings with three strikeouts. Throughout the entire season so far, Broyles has yet to give up a run.
The Rangers will look to continue their great play with a crucial Landmark Conference match against Juniata College this Saturday with a double-header on the road.
