CNBNews

3/27/2008 6:22:49 PM

Ramos-Dominko went the distance and fanned 12 on Thursday.

Box Score

Ewing, NJ – Ranked sixth in Division III, The College of New Jersey’s baseball team opened action in the New Jersey Athletic Conference on Thursday, hosting the Scarlet Raptors of Rutgers University-Camden. TCNJ would open conference play with a 5-1 home win. TCNJ improves to 12-2 overall and 1-0 in the league, while RUC drops to 6-10 overall with an 0-1 mark in the league. The Lions open the NJAC as the league’s three-time defending champions.

TCNJ’s right handed junior pitcher Dan Ramos-Dominko (Hampton, NJ/North Hunterdon) fanned a career-high 12 batters in posting his second win of the year. Ramos-Dominko fanned six batters the last time he took the mound in Arizona and now has 23 strikeouts on the season after Thursday’s outing. He worked a complete game, yielding just one earned run off four hits with a pair of walks to improve to 2-0.

TCNJ jumped out to a 3-0 lead in the bottom of the first inning after junior second baseman Adam Tussey (Brooklawn, NJ/Gloucester High School) was hit by a pitch and junior short stop Jeff Toth (Parlin, NJ/Sayreville) tripled and put the Lions on the scoreboard. TCNJ’s junior Vince Mazzaccaro (Gloucester City, NJ/Gloucester Catholic) came up with a RBI single before senior catcher Rich Gawlak (Plainsboro, NJ/West Windsor-Plainsboro South) added the final RBI of the inning, all coming off RUC’s senior Andrew Lihotz (Philadelphia, PA/Northeast).

RUC pulled within two runs, down 3-1 after sophomore Steve Myers (Millville, NJ/Millville) broke up Ramos-Dominko’s shutout bid in the top of the second with an RBI single.

Lihotz worked eight innings for RUC and drops to 1-2 after allowing five earned runs off seven hits with a walk and two strikeouts.

TCNJ returns to action on March 28 for a 3:30 p.m. road contest at Rowan University, while Rutgers-Camden hosts Montclair State University on March 29 in a noon doubleheader.