Box score
LANTANA, FL—NJIT senior LHP Matt Melody struck out 12 UMBC batters, but the Retrievers came out on top nonetheless, defeating the Highlanders, 5-0, in Palm Beach Challenge baseball action late Thursday afternoon.
Melody (0-3) started and pitched the first seven innings, allowing seven hits and four runs along with his career-high 12 strikeouts, which were also a single-game high for NJIT at the Division I level (2009 is NJIT's third season of Division I competition). Melody's previous single-game strikeout high was nine against Saint Peter's in 2008.
Freshman RHP Dan Moreno pitched the last two innings for the Highlanders and allowed a run on four hits, while adding a strikeout of his own.
UMBC got a combined five-hit shutout from starter Kevin Clark(1-0), a junior right-hander, and freshman right-handed reliever Steve Miller. Clark allowed three hits and struck out five with a walk in the first seven innings and Miller finished by allowing two hits and two walks over the last two innings.
The Retrievers got their first four tallies on a pair of two-out home runs off of Melody. Senior 3B Shawn Retz hit a solo shot in the top of the first inning and classmate C Tom Meaney added a three-run blast in the top of the fourth.
Meaney (2-for-4) picked up another two-out RBI, bringing his game total to four runs batted in, on an eighth-inning double. Meaney and Retz were two of four Retrievers with two hits, joining DH Max Himmelstein and 3B Curtis Schickner.
NJIT, which had set season highs for hits in its previous two games—first with 12 against Northeastern and next with 15 against LIU--was limited to five singles on Thursday by the two UMBC hurlers.
Freshman OF Jeffrey Pizzi had two hits, while DH/LF Craig Binkiewicz, 1B PJ Saporito, and SS Vincent Del Vecchio all had one hit apiece.
The Highlanders threatened in two innings. Trailing by a run in the bottom of the third, NJIT got back-to-back singles from Del Vecchio and Binkiewicz with one out. They moved up to second and third on a wild pitch, but were stranded when UMBC's Clark retired the next two batters.
Meaney's three-run homer made it 4-0 in the top of the fourth and his run-scoring double in the eighth made it 5-0, before the Highlanders opened the ninth with back-to-back singles by Pizzi and Saporito. Retriever reliever Miller struck out the next two batters and then walked C Brian Bleakley to load the bases. But the threat and the game ended on a pop up that left the bases loaded.
The game started two-and-a-half hours after its scheduled time due to heavy rain the day before and lingering showers early on Thursday.
The next scheduled game for NJIT is Friday at 7 pm against North Dakota State.
