The Misericordia University baseball team defeated Rutgers-Newark 5-0 at home on Friday, its first game on campus this season.

MU won the Freedom Conference and earned an automatic NCAA berth this season without ever playing a game on campus, but finally got the chance in this non-league matchup.

The Scarlet Raiders, the top seed in this weekend's ECAC Metro championships, traveled to play an NCAA tournament team in hopes of improving their own chances of receiving an at-large bid on Monday. The Cougars proved their credentials however, holding the visitors to just four hits and no runs.

Senior Nate Newman (3-1) was outstanding on the mound again, allowing just three hits over five shutout innings. Sophomore Mike Pena (4 IP, 0 runs, 4 K's) earned his second save of the season.

Freshman Ryan Cacchioli was 2-for-4 with a run scored and a pair of RBI's for the Cougars. Sophomore Michael Impellittiere (1-for-4) also knocked in two runs, while classmate Andrew Tressa was 2-for-4 with an RBI.

MU did all of its damage with two down in bottom of the second inning. With the bases loaded, Cacchioli snuck a single past the diving second baseman to score Jeff Slanovec and Nate Hamlin and put the Cougars up 2-0.

Impellittiere then ripped a full-count double to bring in freshmen Joe Tagliarini and Cacchioli and double MU's lead. Tressa's bloop hit would score Impellittiere and make it 5-0.

Tagliarini and Cacchioli combined for a neat 3-6-3 double play to get out of the fourth inning. Misericordia threatened in the bottom of the frame but Rutgers-Newark threw a man out at third for the second out of the inning.

The Cougars improve to 28-14 and will await NCAA regional pairings on Monday.