Union, N.J. (5/10/22) – The Kean University baseball team fell to William Paterson University by the final of 10-4 on Tuesday afternoon in the championship of the New Jersey Athletic Conference tournament.
With the win, the Pioneers (30-13) secure the conference's automatic bid into the NCAA tournament, their first trip since the late 1990s.
WP led from start to finish, but the Cougars (31-13) kept things close. The Pioneers jumped out to an early 4-0 lead, aided by two homeruns off the bats of Dan Carter, his fourth in less than 24 hours, as well as Steve Yellin. Kean cut the deficit in half in the fourth as Josh Jackson and Dylan Beyer each recorded RBI.
The Pioneers added to their lead with two runs in the sixth and one more in the seventh. Highlighting the sixth was an RBI triple from Tom Radigan and Yellin collected his second homer of the day in the seventh for the five run advantage.
Philip Mahlik lofted a two run homer in the eighth to pull the deficit back down to three, but that would be as close as Kean would get as William Paterson added insurance in the bottom of the same frame to seal the win.
Matt Lawler (5-2) earned the win after allowed four runs and four hits in seven innings of work. He walked four and struck out two.
