MADISON, N.J. - The Drew University baseball team continued its 11-game homestand on Tuesday and lost by a final of 14-3 to Rutgers-Newark in a non-conference tilt at a frigid Doc Young Field.
Junior
Giovanni DeGiglio got the call on the mound as he made his first career start after 10 relief appearances. He wasted no time setting the tone as he struck out two in the top of the first, including the first batter of the day on three pitches. Tasked with a larger workload than usual, the southpaw was effective early on, striking out four and surrendering only one unearned run through the first four innings before exiting in the fifth.
After the Scarlet Raiders opened the scoring with a run in the second, the Rangers evened things up in the bottom of the third as the first four batters all reached base safely. A trio of freshman kicked off the rally as centerfielder
Ryan Jones and rightfielder
Matt Myers hit back-to-back singles before third baseman
Dallas Lorenzetti reached on an error after laying down a sacrifice bunt. Junior second baseman
Anthony Diaz came in and worked a 2-2 count before an errant pitch hit him in the foot to force home Drew's first run of the game.
Rutgers-Newark answered with four runs in the fifth and four more in the sixth to open up a 9-1 lead. In the bottom of the sixth, Diaz scored Drew's second run of the day after doubling down the left field line and scoring on junior catcher
K.J. Hallgren's two-bagger to right-center. Hallgren would later come home on a single from senior leftfielder
Shane Benson to make it 9-3, but it would turn out to be the team's final runs of the game.
Freshman
Alex Barbarisi, sophomore
Dominic Goodenough, and sophomore
Owen Jaquette all pitched in relief for Drew.
Robert Gonzalez went 4-for-5 with two doubles, two RBIs and four runs scored to lead Rutgers-Newark, which used a bullpen game on the mound and had five pitchers combine on a five-hitter.
The Rangers are back in action this Thursday at 3:30 p.m., when they host TCNJ in another non-conference matchup.
