NEWARK, N.J. (March 30, 2022) – For the second time in the span of a week, a late rally sent the Stevens Institute of Technology baseball over Rutgers University-Newark 7-5 Wednesday in a non-conference matchup at Weequahic Park.

Graduate student Thomas Paulich went 5 for 5 and junior Justin Doyle turned in his third straight sharp outing of the pen for the Ducks, who improved to 16-7 on the year, 

Jon Rosado drove in three runs for Rutgers-Newark, who fell to 10-6. The Ducks have won each of the last three meetings between the teams and four of the last six.

"Extremely important win for us today," head coach Kristaps Aldins said. "It felt like we had to scratch and claw for everything we got offensively and it was rewarding to play the brand of baseball we did, because we truly earned every run we got. All the credit goes out to our student-athletes for executing the way they did today."

Trailing 4-3, the Ducks scored three times against Vince Taylor (0-1) to earn the victory. Senior Ryan Finegan led off with a double and moved to third on first-year Evan Pravato's bunt single. Pinch-runner Peter Mastropolo would come around to score on senior Brett Mendez's suicide squeeze to tie the game, First-year Colby Ching reached on a fielder's choice and senior Ryan Wall put Stevens up for good with a sacrifice fly to score Pravato. Paulich delivered his third hit of the day to score the final run of the inning. 
 
"A special recognition goes out to Colby Ching, who came in as a pinch-hitter and got down a critical bunt in the late innings and proceeded to score from second on an infield hit thanks to a head-first dive to evade the catcher's tag," Aldins said. "It was one of the most exciting plays of the season. Later on, Colby had a successful hit and run attempt. He handled the bat well today and we will need more of that from our team moving forward, as the games get bigger."

The Ducks added a key insurance run in the ninth. Mendez led the inning off with a walk and moved to second on a groundout. Two batters later, graduate student Hunter Silvernail drove in Mendez with an RBI single to right. Silvernail ranks second on the team with 20 RBI.
 
The late offense was all Doyle needed to pick up his third win of the year. The right-hander allowed just one hit over 2 1-3 innings. Over his last three outings, Doyle has allowed two runs on five hits over 14 innings (1.29 ERA). Sophomore Jacob Buurman came in for relief in the final two and two-thirds innings to earn his second save of the season.

"Mark DeCicco gave us a pretty solid pair of innings, as did Anthony Pron," Aldins commented. "Justin Doyle and Jacob Buurman took us home with a pair of excellent outings, holding off a late Rutgers-Newark rally.

"It feels great to enjoy this one for a bit and then we really need to move on to preparing for King's this weekend."
 
Paulich's five-hit day marked a new career high and are the most in a single game since alumnus Tommy Baronner had five against Scranton on May 1, 2018.
 
Up Next: Stevens travels to Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania Saturday afternoon for a MAC Freedom doubleheader with King's College. First pitch is slated for noon. The Ducks swept three meetings between the teams in 2021.
 
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