RAMIREZ BELTS SCHOOL RECORD 7TH HR AS MIDDLESEX TOPS RARITAN VALLEY 12-4

Braden Ramirez hit his school-record seventh home run and Connor Luckie and Vincent Powers drove in three runs each as Middlesex College baseball trounced Raritan Valley Community College 12-4 to move to 33-16 on the season.

Jack Calabrese (Freshman/Edison, NJ) pitched the first five innings to pick up his first win of the season and Thomas Niedermaier (Freshman/Bordentown, NJ) pitched four scoreless innings in relief to gain his first save of the season.

Raritan Valley (9-20) struck first when they touched Calabrese for two first-inning runs, but the Colts answered back with two in the third before adding two more in the fourth to gain a lead they would not relinquish. 

Jordan Brown (Freshman/Piscataway, NJ) and Powers delivered the RBI hits in the third to give the Colts their 4-2 lead.

Ramirez connected for a solo shot in the fifth and Giovanni Aresta hit an RBI double to extend the Middlesex lead to 7-2. The Lions got to within 7-4 before the Colts put things away in the late innings.

After Niedermaier pitched his second scoreless inning, Luckie delivered a bases-clearing double with two outs in the eighth to extend the Middlesex lead to 10-4. Two RBI groundouts in the ninth gave the Colts their final two runs.

Middlesex banged out 18 hits in the game with Aresta leading the way with a 4-5 effort with two runs and an RBI. Ramirez, Luckie, Powers, Matthew Flammia (Freshman/Colonia,NJ) and Kiefer Goss (Freshman/Hamilton, NJ) each had multi-hit games for the Colts.

The home run by Ramirez broke a five-way tie for the most in program history. Previously, Keith Naylor (2002), Corey Tolomeo (2003), Joe Maiorana (2006) and Dom Boccico (2017) had hit six in a season. Middlesex also beat Raritan Valley CC 16-2 earlier this season.

Middlesex returns to action on Thursday when they travel to Delaware County Community College for a 3:30pm start.