Box score

TEANECK, NJ—Freshman Mike Rampone opened Tuesday afternoon's non-conference baseball game against Fairleigh Dickinson with a home run for NJIT and the Highlanders later generated two five-run innings en route to a 12-5 win at FDU's Naimoli Family Baseball Complex.
 
Rampone and sophomore first baseman Tom Bouck each hit a double and a home run in the game that saw the Highlanders belt three doubles and three home runs among their 14 hits, as they won for the 12th time in the last 15 games, upping their overall record to 17-15.
 
The other NJIT double was hit by senior catcher Bryan Bleakley, who raised his season team-leading total to 12 doubles. The third Highlander home run came from Jeff Peterson, the first of the season for the junior third baseman.
 
Rampone, who went 4-for-5 for the first four-hit game in his young career, has two homers on the season, while Bouck hit his fourth home run, putting him one behind Bleakley for the team lead. NJIT has now hit 21 home runs on the year to eight for its opponents.
 
Resurgent Fairleigh Dickinson, which is third in the Northeast Conference with a 13-7 league record, was temporarily denied its first 20-win season since the 1999 season. The loss to NJIT drops the Knights to 19-19-1 overall with 13 regular season games left.
 
NJIT used Rampone's quick-strike home run leading off the game to take a 1-0 lead, but FDU evened things with a run in the bottom half of the opening frame.
 
The Highlanders gained the upper hand with a five-run top of the second inning and the 6-1 lead held with the work of the NJIT starter and winning pitcher, sophomore right-hander Matt Coughlin (2-1), who tossed five innings and allowed four hits and the one run, while striking out four without issuing a walk. In the process, Coughlin lowered his team-best earned run average to 1.80 in 15 innings that included nine relief appearances plus Tuesday's start in Teaneck.
 
The Knights touched up the first of three NJIT relievers, freshman RHP Mike Liegel for four runs in the bottom of the sixth inning, closing the gap to 6-5. Sophomore RHP Joe Fasano took over for Liegel and allowed an inherited runner to score from third base, but Fasano's final line was a tidy three full innings, with one hit, no runs, and no walks. Freshman right-hander AJ Bashaw finished up with two-thirds of an inning pitched, which came on a line-out double play that ended the game. Bashaw allowed one hit.
 
Threatened by the 6-5 score, the Highlanders came back with a run in the seventh and then broke out for five runs, all of which crossed the plate after two were out, in the ninth inning.
 
FDU used five pitchers, with the starter, freshman lefty Ryan MacDonald taking the loss in his fifth start of the year. He is 0-2 after lasting three innings and allowing six runs on four hits, a walk and a hit batter. He struck out one.
 
Junior left-hander Eric Anderson took over and pitched four innings, scattering seven hits to allow just one run in that span, while striking out three and walking none. Freshman Yonah Perline worked a scoreless eighth inning for the Knights, but the next two pitchers, freshman right-handers Eric Snyder and David Marcelino, combined to give up five runs on three hits and two walks in the ninth inning.
 
Aside from Rampone's 4-for-5, Peterson, RF DJ Roche and Tom Bouck all had two-hit days for NJIT. Rampone scored four runs and drove in three, an RBI total matched by Bouck, while Peterson and Roche each knocked in a pair of runs. Peterson and Ed Charlton each scored twice.
 
Fairleigh had 10 hits, with two each coming from its freshman corner outfielders, LF Jordan Ritz and RF Shane Siebler. MacDonald, who was the starting pitcher but flipped places with Anderson and moved to first base to begin the fourth inning, drove in two runs for the Knights. The five FDU runs were scored by five different men.
 
Rampone homered to center field leading off the game for NJIT, but MacDonald retired the next three batters to limit the first-inning damage to one run. FDU got what would be its only run off of Coughlin in five innings, when senior 3B Matt Holsman led off the bottom of the first with a double and then moved up a base on a single by Ritz. After a strikeout, Anderson grounded out to second base, enabling Holsman to cross the plate with the tying run.
 
The Highlanders answered back with five runs in the top of the second inning, as they loaded the bases and scored the go-ahead run on an RBI ground out by LF Jeff Pizzi. Rampone followed with a two-run single, giving him three RBI in his first two at-bats. And Peterson made it a five-run inning with a solo home run to left center field.
 
The 6-1 advantage held going into the bottom of the sixth inning. Coughlin, whose career innings high was six in a win over FDU last April 20 and whose 2012 innings high was three in a winning relief appearance against North Dakota four days before he took Tuesday's star, left after five innings and 62 pitches (46 strikes).
 
Three of the first four Knights batters in the bottom of the sixth inning got hits and third hit, a single by junior 2B Kyle Weeks produced a run. The next batter was hit by a pitch to load the bases and MacDonald, the starting pitcher/first baseman, hit a two-run single to left center, trimming the Highlander lead to 6-4. That brought on Fasano, who allowed the first batter, freshman C Patrick McClure, an infield single that drove in a run from third and made the score 6-5.
 
Fasano then recorded the next two outs to keep the Highlander lead at 6-5 and he would finish his day with nine straight outs, including 1-2-3 work in both the seventh and eighth innings and the leadoff man in the ninth, before Bashaw came on for his second appearance of the year. Bashaw yielded a single to his first batter, Siebler, but then induced the game-ending double play.
 
On the offensive side, Rampone, who had a hand in every scoring inning, led off the seventh with a double and scored two batters later on a single by SS Matt Weckerle.
 
In the ninth, with one out, Rampone singled and then Peterson walked. After the second out, Roche lined the ball up the middle for a two-run single. He followed by stealing second and Charlton walked, putting runners on first and second. With NJIT leading 9-5, FDU coach Gary Puccio summoned Marcelino from the bullpen and the first batter, Bouck crushed the fourth pitch over the right field fence for a three-run homer.
 
NJIT will return to conference play with the biggest challenge the Great West has to offer, a visit to Utah Valley, the only baseball champion the two-year old conference has ever known.
 
Utah Valley, 26-11 overall and 12-0 in the Great West, will bring a school-record 19-game winning streak into its series vs. NJIT. The Wolverines, who last lost on March 22 in a non-conference game against Sacramento State, got their sixth win in the 19-game streak with a 5-4 victory on April 4 against Arizona, which was ranked fourth in the nation at the time.
 
The NJIT at Utah Valley series will begin on Thursday with a single game slated for a 6 pm (Mountain) start, which is 8 pm Eastern.