BETHLEHEM, Pa. --- The Moravian College baseball team rallied from and 8-1 deficit to earn a 10-8 victory over visiting Rutgers-Camden Tuesday afternoon at Gillespie Field in the Greyhounds' final home game of the 2016 regular season.
"The guys showed a lot of fight today against a good team," stated Head Coach Paul Engelhardt. "We have been on the other end of a lot of those games so it's finally nice to come back and win one. It was good to see us playing like that heading into the last conference weekend and then the conference tournament too. The first four and a half innings weren't good but the last four and a half are what we need to do to compete for championships. It helped that (Dan) Morrin came in and pitched the heck out of the ball too."
Moravian had 13 hits in the game with senior first baseman Charles Savite going 3-for-5 with two RBIs. Junior second baseman Nicolas Ampietro was 2-for-2 while junior center fielder Anthony Gaetaniello went 2-for-4 with three RBIs. Senior third baseman Alex Bull and freshman designated hitter Chase Rogers each had two RBIs in the win.
The Greyhounds would send five pitchers to the mound with sophomore Nicholas Mazzella earning the start. He allowed three runs, just one earned on three hits and a walk to go with one strikeout. Sophomore Clay Weidemoyer had two strikeouts in his 1.2 innings of action while senior Anthony Martino retired the only batter he faced. Senior Hunter Guard earned the victory with his two innings of scoreless relief that included two strikeouts while sophomore Dan Morrin earned his second save of the season with five strikeouts over the final two innings.
Rutgers-Camden took a 1-0 lead in the top of the first inning but Moravian responded on singles by freshman right fielder Mike Mittl and Gaetaniello and an RBI sacrifice fly from Bull.
The Raptors scored the next seven runs in the game with two in the third inning, three in the fourth and two more in the fifth to build and 8-1 lead.
The Hounds would cut that deficit to 8-6 with a five-run fifth inning. Senior catcher Mike Roethke reached on an error to start the frame before Ampietro singled. After an out, Gaetaniello ripped a two-RBI triple to center field, and he raced home on an RBI single by Bull. Savite added an RBI double, his second double of the game and the 41st of his career, and Savite scored on an RBI sacrifice fly off of Rogers' bat.
Moravian scored four more times in the bottom of the sixth inning to take a 10-8 lead and finish the scoring in the contest. Gaetaniello had an RBI sacrifice bunt to bring Ampietro in from third base while freshman outfielder Austin Markowski tied the game when a ball rolled out of play on a walk by Bull. Savite followed with an RBI single to give the Hounds the lead for good while Rogers drove in the final run with an RBI single.
The Greyhounds are scheduled to return to action on Wednesday, April 27 in the team's final non-conference game of the season as Moravian heads to Center Valley to take on DeSales University. First pitch is scheduled for 4:05 p.m. with the game being televised live by Service Electric TV-2 Sports.
