By Rachael Cataldo, Asst. sports editor
The Susquehanna baseball team fell to Rutgers-Camden 8-2 in the season home opener on Wednesday, March 28 at Bollinger Field in Selinsgrove.
Rutgers-Camden (8-4) scored six runs in the first inning to secure an early lead.
Senior infielder Tom Giaino had a strong performance for the River Hawks, going 4-5 at the plate with an RBI and a run scored on the day.
LOCKED IN – Senior infielder Tom Giaimo awaits a pitch against Rutgers-Camden on Wednesday
After junior Chris Jones singled through the left side and a walk, sophomore Tyler Travis scored.
Senior Brandon Cornelius hit his second grand slam in his last three games to bring the score 5-1. Another Scarlet Raptor was walked to bring sophomore Wayne Jackson home.
The River Hawks (3-11) answered with a single run in the bottom of the inning.
Senior shortstop Tom Giamio started off the inning with a single through the left side. Junior centerfielder Nick Berger singled to advance Giaimo to second.
Giaimo advanced to third on a double play and scored when junior third baseman Ben Burman doubled to left center.
The Scarlet Raptors extended their lead 8-1, scoring single runs in the third and fourth innings.
Senior catcher Cameron Ott led off the seventh inning with a bunt single and then advanced to second on a passed ball.
Sophomore right fielder Justin Miller walked. Giaimo singled to right field to bring Ott home, but Susquehanna couldn’t get on the board for the final two innings.
Eight River Hawks pitched in the game. Sophomore reliever Brendan Damiano went two innings allowing a run on three hits with three strike outs.
The pitchers combined to retire nine batters but walked 12 and gave up 11 hits.
Giaimo went 4-5 on the day while senior first baseman Cole Luzins and Burman each recorded a pair of hits including one double each.
The River Hawks will begin Landmark Conference play on Friday, March 30 hosting Catholic University. Game time is scheduled for 4 p.m.
Susquehanna will have a doubleheader against the Cardinals on Saturday, March 31 with a 12:30 p.m. start.
The Cardinals come into the game off of a 2-1 series loss to fellow Landmark Conferencefoe Drew over the weekend.
Catholic was able to take the first game with a 3-0 win but then dropped the next two games 6-4 and 10-8.
Pitcher Jon Mierzwa pitched an absolute gem for the Cardinals in game one, going six innings of scoreless baseball with 11 strikeouts.
Despite coming into the matchup with the River Hawks with two-straight losses, the Cardinals are still one of the best teams in the country.
Catholic was ranked 14 in the country in the national DIII rankings before their matchup with Drew and were coming off of a sweep of conference-foe Moravian where they outscored them 37-7 in the three-game series and had only dropped one game before the most-recent series.
The team holds a batting average of .321, which is almost unheard of from a team who has already played in 18 games this season, and have blasted 13 home runs so far through the short season.
Susquehanna is no stranger to beating ranked teams though despite the rough start to the season, as they knocked off two nationally ranked teams during spring training.