Union, N.J. (2/26/16) – Senior Jeremy Charles halted the Kean offense after the first inning helping SUNY College at Old Westbury to a 4-1 win on Friday afternoon.

Charles picked up his first win of the young season allowing one run and three hits with nine strikeouts.

The Cougars fall to 1-3, the first time since 2004 they opened the season with three losses in their first four games.

Southpaw Mike Occhi suffered the loss without allowing an earned run.  Occhi (0-1) allowed three unearned runs and three hits with three walks and three strikeouts in three and two thirds innings of work.

Old Westbury (1-1) got on the board in the first inning as Jesse Russo started off the game with a walk.  An overthrow at first brought him around to third and he scored the game's first run on an RBI groundout from Dean Sheridan.

All of Kean's offense came in the first frame as Andrew DiFrancesco began the inning the same way, with a walk.  Singles from senior Michael Kendall and sophomore Matt Krupa (pictured left) loaded the bases with one out.  Senior Andy Lopez then tied the game up with a single up the middle.  Charles settled down and with the bases loaded recorded a strikeout and flyout to end the early threat.

That would be all for Kean as the combined effort of Charles, Vinny Caputo and Ryan Mordecai tossed eight perfect innings from that point on to propel the Panthers to the win.

Offensively Carlos Balmaceda had a multi-hit day with two doubles. 

Kean returns to action on Saturday when they host DeSales University at 1 p.m.