SEWELL, NJ - The 15th ranked Northampton baseball team let a, 5-1, lead slip away in the late innings to top-ranked RCSJ-Gloucester, falling to the Roadrunners, 11-6, on Wednesday afternoon at the Roadrunners Baseball Complex.

The Spartans and Roadrunners complete their 2-Game Mid-Week Region 19 series with the Roadrunners taking both games from the Spartans.

"Always a tough match up when you get on the field with the top-ranked team in the country," explained Spartans Head Coach Adrian Yaguez, "I was proud of our squad today. Not the result we wanted but I felt we competed much better today than yesterday and that was what I needed to see. We had our chances and had the lead late and just didn't get it done. But, I feel we can learn and grow from this one today, especially our younger players. We will be fine as we move forward and on to our next series. We know everything will be a battle."

The Spartans jumped on the scoreboard first with 3 runs in the top of the third inning. Matthew Tankred (East Greenville, PA/Southern Lehigh) got things going with an RBI single to score Drew Mulligan (Philadelphia, PA/Archbishop Carroll) and Joey Richards (Bath, PA/Bethlehem Catholic) followed with a 2-run single to score Tankred and Kyle Stoner (Burlington Township (NJ)/Burlington Township (NJ)) for the early, 3-0 lead

The Roadrunners cut the lead to, 3-1, scoring a run on a fielding error with 2 outs in the bottom of the 5th inning.

Northampton added two more runs in the top of the 6th inning to extend their lead to, 5-1, when Kyle Stoner (Burlington Township (NJ)/Burlington Township (NJ)) doubled to the right-center field gap to score Drew Mulligan (Philadelphia, PA/Archbishop Carroll) and Danny Qualteria (Quakertown, PA/Quakertown).

The Roadrunners got right back into the game in the bottom of the seventh inning when Jack Mustaro hit a two-out three run home run to cut the Spartans lead to, 5-4. The Spartans saw the game get out of reach when 7 runs crossed the plate in the bottom of the 8th inning to put the Roadrunners ahead, 11-5.

Matthew Tankred (East Greenville, PA/Southern Lehigh) hit a solo home run to lead off the top of the 9th inning, but that would be it for the Spartans, as they fell to the Roadrunners, 11-6.

Jared Diefenbach (Stewartsville, NJ/Phillipsburg (NJ)) pitched 6.2 innings, allowing 7 hits and 3 earned runs, striking out 2. Jayson Ehrhart (Phoenixville, PA/Spring-Ford) took the loss, pitching 0.2 innings, allowing 1 earned run and 1 hit. Carver Perrone (Quakertown, PA/Quakertown) and Juan Cruz (Bethlehem, PA/Liberty) also saw late inning work in relief.

Northampton slips to 14-9 overall and 8-4 in Region 19.

RCSJ-Gloucester improves to 18-4 overall and 15-1 in the Region.

The Spartans are back in action on Friday when they host Ocean County College for game one of their Region 19 series at 3:30pm at Spartan Park.