UNION, N.J. – The Drew University baseball team carried a lead into the seventh inning at No. 4-ranked Kean University, but the Cougars rallied for a 6-5 victory in the Rangers' season opener Friday afternoon.
 
Drew led 5-3 at the seventh-inning stretch before Kean scored twice in the bottom of the inning and once in the ninth, winning the game on a walk-off single.

Kean entered the game ranked No. 4 by D3baseball.com and No. 5 by the ABCA.
 
Sophomore outfielder Frank Master went 3-for-4 with a double and two runs scored for the Rangers while freshman catcher Nick Donofrio enjoyed a big collegiate debut, going 2-for-3 with a home run and four RBIs while also throwing out a runner on the bases.
 
Three pitchers saw action on the mound for Drew, including freshman Nicholas Lo Vacco, who started and allowed just one run on three hits and three walks while striking out two over 2 2/3 innings. Freshman Jayce Thoroughman tossed 4 1/3 innings in relief and yielded four runs while striking out five before junior Tyler Bell came on to throw the last 1 2/3 innings. He did not yield an earned run and struck out two.
 
Drew struck early, when Donofrio singled home a run in the first to put the Rangers up 1-0.
 
Lo Vacco blanked the Cougars (2-0) over the first two innings before the hosts pushed across a run in the bottom of the third to tie it at 1-1. Donofrio ended the inning when he pegged a would-be base-stealer at second.
 
Kean went in front 3-1 after a two-run fourth. However, the Rangers answered quickly with two in the top of the fifth to pull even. Senior third baseman Nick Bisaccia drew a leadoff walk before Donofrio slammed a one-out homer that just cleared the fence in left.
 
Drew posted a two-run seventh to assume a 5-3 lead. Master sliced a double to the left-center gap leading off the inning and scored on a Bisaccia single up the middle. Sophomore outfielder Zach Maxwell followed up with a single of his own that put runners on the corners, and Bisaccia scampered home from third on a Donofrio sacrifice fly into foul territory down the rightfield line.
 
Bell entered the game in the eighth and after yielding a leadoff single, he retired the side in order. Junior Zachary Chhabria, who entered the game as a defensive replacement at first base, deftly handled a comebacker that ricocheted off Bell and rolled to first, as he scooped up the ball and outraced the runner to the bag. With the go-ahead run at third, Bell escaped with a flyout to center.
 
The leadoff hitter for Kean reached second on an error leading off the ninth, and he was bunted to third. Bell got the second out when he induced a bunted foul for strike three, but Kean's Santino Czarecki blooped a pinch-hit single into right to end the game.
 
The Rangers pick up their schedule next Friday, when they take on Saint Elizabeth University at FDU-Florham in their opening game of the Battle of Madison Avenue.