Mahwah, NJ: The Ramapo College baseball team opened their 2006 NJAC season today in Mahwah facing the Scarlet Raiders of Rutgers Newark at Jeff Maund Field. The Roadrunners posted a 11-2 loss falling to 11-6 on the year, 0-1 in the New Jersey Athletic Conference. Rutgers Newark improves to 9-8 overall, 1-0 in the conference.

Rutgers Newark jumped on the board early in the 2nd inning when sophomore Arthur Kleinberg (Livingston, NJ) led off with a single to left field and later scored on a Brent DiMarco (Nutley, NJ) single. The team jumped ahead by three runs in the 3rd after back-to-back wild pitches that brought home David Sica (Lyndhurst, NJ) and Bill Mercurio (Wappinger Falls, NY). Sica walked and Mercurio reached first on a catcher's interference to get on base.

The Roadrunners finally got on the scoreboard in the bottom of the 3rd when senior catcher Mike Jakupcionis (Edison, NJ) touched the plate on a RBI ground out by Nick Sbarra (Washington Twp., NJ) to close the gap 3-1.

The Scarlet Raiders answered with three more runs in the 4th taking a 6-1 lead off Brian Gill (Manasquan, NJ), DiMarco, and Mike DiMattia (Sewell, NJ) runs. Gill ripped a single to right, DiMarco walked, and DiMattia ripped a single of his own to get on base.

The Roadrunners were unable to get on the board again until the 6th inning when senior captain Brad Szatkiewicz (Branchville, NJ) crossed home plate on a Mike Stetsko (Beachwood, NJ) double to left field to close the gap to four, 6-2.

The Scarlet Raiders were too much for Ramapo scattering five more runs across the 7th and 8th innings to drop Ramapo, 11-2 in Mahwah.

Mercurio hit 2-3 with two runs and two RBI while DiMarco and Kleinberg went 2-5 with one run and one RBI and two runs and two RBI respectively. DiMattia and Sica each added runs in the win while Mike Marcucci (Whitehouse Station, NJ) drove in one of his own. Ramapo's Szatkiewicz hit 2-3 with one run while Jakupcionis posted the team's second run hitting 1-3.

Junior pitcher Tom Reynolds (Garfield, NJ) earned the win pitching seven innings striking out four and walking one while Ramapo's Florian Wouters (Ramsey, NJ) records the loss letting up three runs in two innings. Wouters struck out two and walked four in the outing.

Ramapo returns to action tomorrow when they face NJAC rival Montclair State University in Montclair at 3:00 PM.