Box score

BRONX, NY—Saint Peter's scored twice in the top of the fifth inning to pull ahead of NJIT in what became a 5-3 win for the Peacocks over the Highlanders in a baseball game shortened to seven innings due to snow on the second day of play in Fordham University's Frankie Frisch Invitational.
 
The victorious Peacocks are 5-8 on the season, while NJIT drops to 4-9.
 
NJIT, which was the designated “home” team in the game against Saint Peter's played at Houlihan Park on the Fordham campus, took three different leads in the first four innings. The Highlanders took a 1-0 lead in the first inning, a 2-1 lead in the third inning, and a 3-2 lead in the fourth inning. However, Saint Peter's scored two in the top of the fifth to take a 4-3 lead and then added a run in the top of the seventh for a 5-3 advantage. NJIT was scoreless in its last three innings at bat and the game ended after seven complete innings due to snow.
 
The winning pitcher for Saint Peter's was the starter, senior RHP Matthew Yuhas (1-1), who pitched the first five innings and allowed all three NJIT runs and eight of the Highlanders' nine hits. Peacock freshman right-hander John Leiter, who is a cousin of NJIT senior Mark Leiter, Jr. got the save for SPU, tossing two innings of scoreless one-hit ball. The save was John Leiter's first in college.
 
NJIT used two pitchers, with the starter, sophomore RHP Bill VanMeerbeke (1-3) taking the loss. He was credited with four innings pitched, although he faced the first two Saint Peter's batters in the fateful top of the fifth inning. Both got hits and ended up scoring the tying and go-ahead runs. VanMeerbeke allowed seven hits and walked one, while striking out four. Junior RHP Matt Coughlin worked the last three innings for the Highlanders, allowing two hits and a run, with two strikeouts and a walk.
 
Each team got nine hits in the game, with four Highlanders—CF Ed Charlton, LF Nick Rabasco, DH Stephan Halibej, and SS Nick Swim—all rapping out two hits each. Charlton's hits were a double and a triple and Rabasco, a freshman, added his first career college triple to the mix. C Scott Brosman (1-for-2) accounted for the ninth NJIT hit.
 
The offensive output for the Peacocks was more widespread, as seven different men got hits, topped by senior 2B Matt Speckmann (2-for-3, 2 runs) and senior CF Matt Mancini (2-for-4).Five other Peacocks got one hit each, including DH Pat Farrell and C James Smith, who each doubled, and RF William Rawson, who tripled.
 
NJIT drew first blood when Charlton led off the bottom of the opening inning with a double, advanced to third on a ground out and scored on a sacrifice fly by 3B Matt Weckerle.
 
Saint Peter's tied the score in the top of the third on an RBI single to right field by LF Robert Moore, but the Highlanders reclaimed the lead with a run of their own in the bottom half. Rabasco led off with his triple and, after an out, came home on Halibej's single.
 
The 2-1 NJIT was as short-lived as the 1-1 tie had been, as Saint Peter's created a 2-2 tie with a run in the top of the fourth inning in similar fashion to the third-inning run for the Highlanders. Rawson, the SPU sophomore, tripled to open the fourth inning and he came in when the next batter, Smith, hit a sacrifice fly to make it 2-2.
 
The run and lead-trading continued in the bottom of the fourth, when NJIT went back up, 3-2. Brosman singled to lead off, but was replaced on first base by Mike Rampone, whose grounder to third base was turned into a force out at second base. The next batter, Charlton, tripled to put NJIT back on top, 3-2, plus a runner on third base with one out. However, Yuhas, the Saint Peter's pitcher got the next two Highlanders to ground out, stranding Charlton on third base.
 
With one run having been scored in each of the preceding four half-innings, Saint Peter's scored twice in the top of the fifth, taking the lead for good in the process. Speckmann opened with a single and came all the way around with the tying run on a double by the next batter, Farrell. That brought Coughlin in from the Highlander bullpen and he threw a wild pitch, putting Farrell on third base with no one out. After a walk to 1B Nicholas Henriquez, Coughlin induced a double-play ground out by Smith, but the go-ahead run crossed the plate for the Peacocks on the play. Mancini followed with a bases-empty single and stole second, but Coughlin retired Rawson, keeping the score at 4-3, Saint Peter's through five innings.
 
However, NJIT was done scoring for the day and managed just two more baserunners—a seventh-inning single for Rabasco and a walk to Swim in the same frame. Saint Peter's added an insurance run in the top of the seventh inning, with the run coming home on a bases-loaded, two-out wild pitch.
 
With snow falling for much of the game and creating wet grounds when it melted, the game was halted after seven innings.
 
Weather permitting, the Highlanders are slated to wrap up play in the 2013 Frankie Frisch Invitational with a noon game Sunday against Sacred Heart at Fordham's Houlihan Park.  
 
Frankie Frisch (1898-1973) is a member of the Baseball Hall of Fame for his achievements as a player (.316 lifetime batting average; 2,880 hits in 19 seasons; 1931 National League MVP) and manager (16 seasons, 1,138 wins) in the major leagues, He played baseball in high school at Fordham Prep and then in college at Fordham from 1918 to 1919 before embarking on his illustrious pro career. His nickname in the newspapers of his time was “The Fordham Flash”. The inaugural Frankie Frisch Invitational field consists of Fordham, NJIT, Sacred Heart, and Saint Peter's.