Hot bats and solid pitching helped William Paterson blow out New Jersey Athletic Conference rival Montclair State 16-3 on Friday, April 17.
The Pioneers got a stellar performance on the mound from senior Dan VandeVrede as he threw a complete game allowing only seven hits and striking out seven. VandeVrede improved to 3-3 on the year with the victory.
The offense was sparked by some hot hitting that got the Pioneers on the board early and often. After pushing across three runs in the second inning, one in the third and two each in the fourth and sixth, the William Paterson lead was 8-0 after six innings. The Pioneers put the Red Hawks away with a seven-run assault in the home half of the seventh.
Junior Miguel Lugo, senior Will Courter and sophomore Frank Franco provided two-run singles in the seventh while senior John Elia squeezed in a RBI double to give William Paterson a 15-0 lead.
The Pioneers totaled 19 hits on the afternoon with six going for extra bases. Lugo led the team with four hits in six at-bats while driving in two runs and scoring two more. Junior standout Mike Guadango was 3-5 with two double and two RBI and Courter also finished 3-5 with three RBI and three runs scored.
Montclair managed to plate only three runs, with two coming in the ninth inning with two outs. MSU first baseman Jason Lopez led his team by going 2-3 at the plate. Kevin Wieme allowed six runs in 3.1 innings to pick up the loss.
The win pushed William Paterson’s record to 18-12 overall and 10-3 in the NJAC. The Pioneers stayed ahead of Kean (8-3) and The College of New Jersey (8-3) in the conference standing as the season begins to wind down. The Pioneers will play five more conference games before the NJAC tournament begins on April 28.
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