Rider loses three straight to Delaware, falls to 3-3

By Benjamin Shinault

Just about over a week ago, on Feb. 21, Rider baseball was riding the high of starting out its 2026 season with a sweep on the road. Flash forward, the Broncs are the ones to get swept, as they lost all three games on the road to the University of Delaware.

Late-game pitching was the largest struggle for the Broncs over the three-game set, with the team surrendering 23 runs.

‘Not our day’

The Broncs struck first in the opening game of the series on Feb. 27, as senior outfielder Anthony Paskell connected on the first pitch of the game and sent it over the left-field wall for a solo home run.

In the very next inning, senior outfielder Erich Hartmann added on with a single to center field to score another run to make it 2-0 in Rider’s favor.

Later on, in the third inning, the Blue Hens were able to knot it up at 2-2 with an RBI double and a sacrifice fly.

The Broncs bounced back immediately in the fourth inning as Hartmann, once again, made contact and scored junior infielder Matt Leahy from a fielder’s choice.

With Rider up 3-2, Delaware had a big inning on their end in the fourth inning, as they got out to a 6-3 lead.

Coming off a great performance against the University of North Carolina Asheville, senior pitcher PJ Craig hit a bump in the road against Delaware, as he allowed six earned runs, walked four Blue Hens and gave up nine hits. However, Craig punched out seven Blue Hens.

Now down 6-3, the Broncs brought the score to 6-4 after a throwing error scored an unearned run. 

Delaware continued to pour it on, getting out to a 13-4 lead. The Broncs stopped the bleeding with a junior catcher Nick Shuhet RBI single to make it 13-5 in the ninth inning.

Also in the ninth, senior infielder AJ Labrusciano launched his first collegiate home run to make it 13-8.

“It felt really good because that was my first college home run, and you know, anytime you hit a home run, it’s pretty cool,” Labrusciano said.

The Shuhet single and the Labrusciano home run was not enough for the Broncs, as they fell in the opening game of the series, 13-8.

“I thought offensively, we did some good things. They [Delaware] had two big innings … but it got away from us. Not our day,” Acting Head Coach Barry Davis said to Rider Athletics.

A late Delaware surge

In game two of the Delaware series, pitching was among the biggest strengths for the Broncs.

Sophomore pitcher Kyle Batt had a good day on the mound for Rider, as he threw five innings, allowed one earned run and struck out two.

Offensively for Rider, the game started slow, as they were in a 2-0 hole until the fifth inning when they went out front 4-2.

During that fifth inning, the Broncs scored off RBI singles from senior infielder Will Gallagher and sophomore infielder Eliot Medlock, as well as an RBI double from junior outfielder Kyle Neri that scored the other two runs.

Carrying a 4-2 lead into the sixth, the Blue Hens got a run back and made it 4-3 after an RBI double. 

In the next inning, Delaware would add on another two runs after a two-run home run to make it 5-4.

The Broncs trailed entering the ninth, but could not come up with a comeback effort in the final inning and fell short, 5-4.

Déjà vu

For the second time in a matter of 24 hours, the Broncs fell 5-4 to the Delaware Blue Hens. With the 5-4 loss to Delaware on March 1, the Broncs were swept in a three-game series for the first time since they faced St. John’s University in March 2024.

The game was knotted up at 1-1 entering the sixth inning of play. Rider’s lone run to that point was an unearned run.

But, in the Blue Hen’s half of the sixth, they poured four unearned runs on the Broncs to go up 5-1. 

Rider responded in the seventh inning with three runs after an RBI double from Paskell and two fielder’s choices to make it 5-4. 

Pitching held firm the rest of the way, but the Broncs could not tie it up, and lost 5-4.

“The last two were winnable games, but we just didn’t get the hit when we needed it or didn’t make the pitch or the play when we needed to,” Davis said.

Pitching for Rider in the series finale was senior Clayton Poliey. Over his four innings, Poliey struck out three Blue Hens, allowed just one earned run and only gave up four hits.

Regardless of the sweep, and now falling to 3-3 on the year, Davis was still proud of the performance his team put up over the weekend.

“Overall, when you look at it from the outside, you’d look at it and say, ‘yeah, we didn’t win three, we didn’t win a game,’ but we competed,” Davis said.

Rider will continue its stretch of road games as they take on Saint Joseph’s University in Philadelphia on March 4 at 2:30 p.m.