Madison, N.J., Tuesday, Mar. 22, 2011-- Arcadia University Baseball shut-out the Rangers of Drew University Tuesday afternoon, 9-0, for their first win of the season. The Knights jumped out to a 2-0 lead through three innings, but put the game out of reach after posting a six run top of the fifth. Junior Marc Gottfried went the distance for the Knights pitching nine innings of shut-out baseball. 

The Knights entered Tuesday afternoon's contest in desperate need of offensive run support coming off a tough week. Arcadia would get things started early, Sophomore Jerry Smith led off the top of the second inning with a single, and advanced to second and eventually to third via fielding mistakes of the Rangers. With the runner at third and no outs Junior Mike McElhatton stepped in the box and calmly delivered a single to left center field, putting Arcadia ahead 1-0, which in turned was the only run the Knights would need on this afternoon, however they were not satisfied. 

In the top of the third inning Knights starting pitching Gottfried helped his own cause with a one-out double and would eventually come around to score on an RBI ground out by first-year Patrick Kwiatowski, increasing the lead to 2-0 after two-and-a-half innings. Both teams would go down in consecutive order over the next one-and-a-half innings of play, as the score reamined to 2-0 entering the top of the fifth inning. It was here Arcadia made its mark on the game, blowing the game open, and almost guaranteeing their first victory of the young season. Junior Mark Bowman would get the inning started with a lead-off double down the right field line, followed by consecutive walks to a pair of Knight sophomores, Nick Petroski and Brandon Martin, loading the bases for Gottfried. As he did earlier in the game, Gottfried helped his own cause, singling down the left field line, scoring both Bowman and Petroski. Arcadia's next scoring opportunity came as first-year Jay Zehring stepped to the plate with runners on second and third, one down, and laced a double to left field scoring Martin and Gottfried for a 6-0 advantage. Following Zehring, Smith produced an RBI double to straight away center field for the Knights fifth run of the inning. Very next to the plate junior Kyle Jackson singled to left center, scoring Smith and pushing the Arcadia lead to 8-0 heading into the final 3.5 innings of play.

Arcadia's final run on the afternoon came in the eighth inning, for the final tally of 9-0. Gottfried finished to the day going 3-5 at the plate with two RBI and two runs scored. On the mound he scattered six hits over the course of nine innings, striking out seven while not walking a single batter.

The Knights return to action March 25 when they travel to take on Commonwealth foe Messiah College in the first game of their three game weekend series which concludes with March 26 home double-header at Erny Field. Friday's first pitch is scheduled for 3:30 p.m., while Saturday's double-header is scheduled to begin at Noon.