HOBOKEN, N.J. – Tyler Wilke and
Adam Barrington keyed a seven-run sixth inning with back-to-back home runs for the Stevens Institute of Technology baseball team in a 9-4 win over Hudson County foe Rutgers-Newark from Dobbelaar Field on Tuesday.
How it Happened
Opener
Rob Hughes and long man
Zach DeGeorge posted a scoreless first and second for Stevens (2-0), albeit in highly contrasting ways. Hughes set the Scarlet Raiders down in order before DeGeorge worked around a leadoff walk followed by a throwing error by striking out the next three batters, two of them looking. DeGeorge followed his dominant end to the second with a 1-2-3 third before running into trouble in the third, exiting with the bases loaded, though
Evan Carrier limited the damage to a single run.
After stranding a runner on third with one out in the third, Stevens got on the board in the bottom of the inning. Four straight Ducks reached to open the inning via a throwing error, walk, and two singles, the second off the bat of
Garret Wolf tying the game; Edward "E.J." Balewitz Jr. put Stevens in front with a sacrifice fly.
Carrier wound up retiring six of the eight men he faced, though Stevens could not add to their lead despite two in scoring position with one out in the fourth or the bases loaded and two out in the fifth. Carrier's strong outing kept the Ducks poised to hold the lead heading to the bottom of the sixth before a dropped ball on a tag play with two out led to the tying run scoring for Rutgers-Newark, though things were not tied for long.
With one out in the bottom of the inning, Wilke and Barrington launched no-doubt, shots, putting the Ducks up 4-2. Each of the next four batters reached without recording a hit, as
John Czernyk,
Chip Krese, and
Dylan Fishbough all walked in front of
Ethan Simpson, who reached on a Czernyk-scoring error.
Griffin Zitko made it 6-2 with a sacrifice fly and Balewitz Jr. made it 8-2 two batters later with a two-run single. Wilke capped the monster inning with a pop fly RBI single that fell between a charging right fielder and retreating second baseman.
Two seventh inning Rutgers-Newark runs kept things from getting completely out of hand, but
Dawson Guerard and Wolf each tossed a scoreless inning to close out the win.
Inside the Box Score
- Stevens improved to 10-4 all-time against the Scarlet Raiders, including 9-2 under head coach Kristaps Aldins
- Barrington, Simpson, Nate Hill, Vinnie Stigliano, Veer Wadhwani, and Adam Kobayashi all made their Ducks' debuts; Wilke made his first appearance since the 2024 season after missing the entirety of 2025 to injury
- Krese, Wilke, and Barrington all finished with two hits; Fishbough scored two runs for the second straight game; Balewitz Jr. finished with a career-high three RBI
Up Next
The Ducks head to Washington, D.C. for the Matt Kurkjian ALS Awareness Invitational. Stevens begins its three-game weekend on Friday at 3 PM against Dickinson, the first contest between the two sides in nearly 14 years (March 14, 2012).
#AllRise
