Christina Christodoulou
The Drew University baseball team went 2-1 in their first week of play.
In their season opener on Feb. 16, Drew fell to Kean University with a score of 2-1. The Rangers got on the board first when Eric DiPietro (‘19) ripped a double down the left field after Anthony Tagliaferro (‘20) drew a leadoff walk. Kean tied the game at the end of the second inning. The play remained equalized at 1-1 until the sixth inning, when the Cougars went ahead on a single and took the lead. Matthew Lange (‘20) and DiPietro led the Rangers with a two-base hit each. Zach Lipshitz (‘19) and Jayson Mitch (‘19) added Drew’s only other hits in the game. Pitcher Pete Violante (‘20) went five innings allowing just one run on two hits with three strikeouts and a walk. Davis Fouts (‘19) took the loss after yielding one run on three hits as well as a strikeout. Jeff Serin (‘21) struck out four and walked one over an inning-long shutout.
The next day, the Rangers took a 4-1 win against Brockport. The scoring started with runs batted in from singles in the first two innings. Mitch drew a one-out walk, moved to second on a groundout and took third on a single by Joseph Grossane (‘19) before coming around on a passed ball. Mitch then knocked a single with the Rangers loaded on the bases to make it 2-0. In the third inning, Brockport picked up a run, but Drew responded with a two-spot in the end of the sixth inning to solidify the win. Ryan Sabbag (‘18) ripped a one-out RBI single, then scored on Lipshitz’s base hit to right. The game was called short in the seventh inning because of worsening weather conditions. Mitch finished with a 1-for-3 run and scored an RBI, while Sabbag was 1-for-2 with a run scored and RBI, as well. The Rangers tallied five hits overall, including a double by Tagliaferro. Paul Roth (‘18) pitched six solid innings by striking out five and only surrendered one run on five hits. Joshua Williams (‘19) added a pair of strikeouts in the seventh.
On Feb. 21, the Rangers earned another victory against Stevens with a score of 11-6. Their next game will be on Feb. 24 against Lehman University.
