Head coach Ryan Zegarski picked up two more wins on Tuesday, March 27 to bring his career total to 403, when the Vikings swept a doubleheader against the Lions of Raritan Valley Community College.
“It really means that I’ve had a lot of great players,” Zegarski said in reference surpassing 400 wins. “It’s a great honor but I really don’t place too much emphasis on stats like that. I’m more concerned with coaching these players for this season.”
In game one of the doubleheader sophomore pitcher Tatum Marshall held Raritan to only one run while striking out six. The game was called in the fifth inning after Mercer took a lopsided 18-1 lead.
With the win Marshall remains undefeated as she moves to a perfect 5-0 on the season, and according to NJCAA.org she has pitched to an ERA of only 0.81, the ninth lowest in all of Division II.
“She throws strikes, that’s all you can ask out of a pitcher is to throw strikes and keep the ball in play and we’re confident that our fielders behind her can make the plays,” Zegarski said.
The second game yielded a similar result with Mercer putting up 10 runs in just the first inning. It would be another short affair as the second game would also be called in the fifth inning with Mercer up 13-1. Catcher Gabriella Early went 3 for 3 and racked up five RBIs.
Mercer, which had been scheduled to play seven straight home games after returning from their annual Myrtle Beach trip, hadn’t seen game action in 10 days as five of their scheduled home games were canceled due to the recent inclement weather.“Sometimes time off gives you time to reflect on the good and bad things you’ve done already. We did a lot of talking to them about what we’ve accomplished so far,” Zegarski said. “We try to keep up the good and correct the bad.”
Meanwhile Raritan suffered a pair of noncompetitive losses in a late start to their season. The weather had cost the Lions the entire early portion of their schedule leaving Mercer as their first opponent of 2018, as they failed to go a full seven innings in either game.
In game one, Raritan sophomore pitcher Amanda Hansen opened her 2018 season with a scoreless first inning before giving up six runs in the second and eight more in the third. She was pulled late in the fourth inning and left the bases loaded.
“I think we all just got a little discombobulated since it was our first game and our first time playing here,” Hansen said. “We probably would have been a little bit better if we were able to practice on our field and had more practices in general since the weather did cancel a lot of our practices and games.”
Raritan was also at a disadvantage of playing on unfamiliar surfaces. According to Raritan head coach Donald Meister, his team practices is an indoor facility and plays on an all grass field, a far cry from the dirt of Mercer’s home field.
With the pair of wins Mercer’s record improves to 13-2-1. They will not get a chance to make up the home games they missed as seven of their last thirteen opponents will be faced on the road.
