Rider takes two of three behind pitching

By Benjamin Shinault

After a jam-packed, unpredictable offseason,  Rider baseball finally laced up the cleats, buttoned up the jersey and jogged out onto the baseball field. From Feb. 21-23, the Broncs traveled down to Buies Creek, North Carolina, to take on the Fightin’ Camels of Campbell University. In a three-game series, the Broncs left winning two.

Late-game laser

The weather down south resembled that of Rider’s campus when the first pitch came sailing out of junior pitcher P.J. Craig’s hand on Feb. 21 as it was 42 degrees, with a slight chilly breeze.

The cold conditions were not a problem for Craig as he surfed through the Camels lineup finishing with a line of five innings pitched, allowing one earned run off a double to left field and just five hits. 

Relieving Craig in the sixth inning was sophomore Jake Dorety who was just as untouchable allowing just three hits, one earned run and a walk in his two and one thirds innings pitched.

The Broncs offense was just as efficient as the pitching staff and got right to work with a two-run homerun in the first inning off the bat of sophomore infielder Joe Tiroly. Tiroly, just under two weeks removed from being placed on the preseason The all-Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference team, got to work on his 2025 campaign.

“The first pitch he threw me was a fastball and then he threw me another fastball, then he missed down and in with a cutter, so I was just sitting fastball and it was 2-1, he threw the fastball up and I just put a good swing on it and it carried out,” Tiroly said.

Following the two-run shot to give Rider an early 2-0 first inning lead, the Broncs offense was silenced until the ninth inning when sophomore catcher Nick Shuhet broke the silence with a boomer over the left field wall to give Rider the 4-2 edge in the the ninth.

“It was electric, absolutely electric, not only does it speak volumes about him [Shuhet] but our team in general, we play fearless,” Tiroly said.

Campbell in the bottom of the ninth  made things interesting with a solo shot to close the gap to one but graduate student pitcher Zach Silfies, a transfer student from Elizabethtown, closed the door with his three strikeouts in one and two thirds innings of work.

Outside of the two home runs, the Broncs had three total base hits but it was enough to give them a tight 4-3 win. 

Playing small ball

By the end of senior pitcher Brian Young’s outing on the mound, Young pitched seven innings allowing two hits and two earned runs and struck out four.

The game was scoreless heading into the third inning with just one hit for the Broncs coming off a single from junior outfielder Erich Hartmann. With the game knotted up at zero, Rider scored off a fielder’s choice giving them the lead.

The next inning, Shuhet scored off a wild pitch to bring the Broncs lead to 2-0. The Broncs had the bases juiced, but could not quite get the ball to the outfield grass at Jim Perry Stadium.

The messy play of the Camels would continue into the fifth inning as the Broncs would extend their lead to 3-0 thanks to a grounder from Richie Sica which was marked down as an unearned run. 

Young finally ran into his trouble against the Camels in the sixth inning when they closed the gap to 3-2 off a double to right field and a sacrifice fly. Young stopped the bleeding and keep it to two.

By the end, Rider toatled five hits and were walked six times once again, the sloppy play of the Camels propelled the Broncs to a win.

Camels walk the Broncs

On a delightful, 60 degree day under the trees of North Carolina, the Broncs witnessed their first blowout of the season to the Camels, 13-3.

Rider put three runs on the board in the first inning thanks to a double from Hartmann and two RBI singles from sophomore outfielder Kyle Neri and Shuhet.

Once the inning flipped, it was all Campbell as they put up four runs on the board in the second inning to grab the lead 4-3 and they never gave it back.

The Broncs used six different pitchers in their attempt to douse the fire coming from the batter’s box but the damage was already done.

“We are very happy with our performance this weekend, we won the series, we took the series against a really good program, school and team in Campbell so … we know what we are made of,” Tiroly said.

Rider spend the week at home before they down to North Carolina to take on Western Carolina University in another three-game set from Feb. 28 through March 1.