NEWARK, NJ—Marist used a 16-hit attack that included three doubles, two triples and a home run, plus some solid pitching to score a convincing 12-2 win over NJIT in Thursday night baseball at Bears and Eagles Riverfront Stadium.

The Red Foxes (14-9) are looking like a serious contender in the Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference and they showed NJIT why, breaking through for five runs in the second inning and then adding on steadily for the rest of the game.

At the same time, Marist got a solid start from sophomore LHP Sean McKeown (2-0), who pitched the first six innings and allowed five hits, two unearned runs and two walks, while striking out three. Left-handed relievers Chad Gallagher and Peter Barone combined to hold NJIT to one hit over the last three innings.

At bat, the Red Foxes got production from throughout the order, as seven different men generated two hits apiece and each of the six extra-base hits was hit by a different player. 2B John Prano, 1B Kenny Anderson and RF Kyle Meyer shared the team RBI lead with two each and five different players scored two runs each.

LF Brian McDonough (2-for-5) led off the third inning with a towering drive over the left field fence for his first home run of the year. And he also made a fine play on NJIT's first hit of the game. With one out in the third inning, Highlander CF James D'Aloia hit the ball off the top of the bullpen door in left field and McDonough played the carom perfectly and made a strong throw to get out D'Aloia sliding into second base. McDonough's play wound up saving a run, as the two men up for NJIT produced singles.

The Highlanders finished with six hits, all singles, with 2B Craig Binkiewicz (2-for-4) and 1B Kyle McCarthy (2-for-3) leading the way.

The starting and losing pitcher for NJIT was senior LHP PJ Saporito (1-4), who was strong in the first inning, but was hit hard in Marist's five-run, six-hit second inning and then yielded two runs in the third and two more in the fifth. He was charged with 13 hits, nine runs (eight earned), and two hit batsmen. Saporito struck out three and did not walk anyone.

Freshman RHP Reid Okita had a strong sixth inning in relief and got two more outs in the seventh before Marist touched him for two runs, the second of which came in on Prano's triple into the right field corner.

Sophomore RHP Matt Tomczyk finished up with his strongest pitching performance of the season. He pitched two innings and allowed a lone unearned run on one hit and a walk, while striking out two.

Despite the loss, NJIT made three excellent defensive plays on the infield.

Freshman SS Vincent Del Vecchio ranged far to his left to snag a ball hit up the middle and then made a backhanded flip to Bienkiewicz covering second base for a force out. And McCarthy, in his second start of the season, made two fine stops. The first was a reaction play on a hard-hit grounder with the infield drawn, preventing a run by holding a runner on third with one out and the second with a diving stab behind the bag on a ball hit down the line, turning a potential double into a 3-1 inning-ending out in the top of the ninth inning.

Marist got its first two runs on an unusual triple that Anderson hit so hard it skimmed through the infield and went all the way to the fence in right center field. Meyer followed with a double that easily scored Anderson and Marist wrapped up the big second inning with RBI singles from CF Michael Gallic and Prano.

The Red Foxes got a no-doubt-about-it run in the third inning on McDonough's leadoff homer and then one that needed good fortune as Meyer's hump-back soft line drive past the mound dropped in no-man's land for a run-scoring single.

Marist got a run on a wild pitch and another on Prano's triple in the seventh inning and then an unearned run in the eigth, when Ben Luderer doubled leading off, moved to third on a passed ball and scored on a wild pitch.

The Highlanders' unearned runs in the bottom of the fifth inning were helped by two Marist errors. McCarthy led off with a single and later scored and RF Jeffrey Pizzi, who had reached base on a fielder's choice, scored on a fielder's choice RBI by Del Vecchio.

The Highlanders will be off for more than a week, resuming play on April 10 in Burlington, VT. They will play Manhattan in a neutral-site game at the University of Vermont on the 10th at 5 pm and then take on host Vermont the next day at 3:30 pm.