Box Score


TEANECK, NJ—Fairleigh Dickinson plated a combined eight runs in the second and third innings Friday afternoon against visiting NJIT and that was too much for the Highlanders to overcome, as they got back within two runs of the lead, but eventually fell to the Knights, 11-8, on FDU's Naimoli Family Baseball Complex.
 
NJIT, FDU, and Lehigh are getting together this weekend in a "classic" format hosted by the Knights, who, after opening against the Highlanders on Friday, are slated to play one game each on Saturday and Sunday against Lehigh. The Highlanders will also play single games on Saturday and Sunday against Lehigh in Teaneck. Lehigh did not play on Friday but will take on FDU and NJIT in single games on both Saturday and Sunday.
 
In Friday's contest, Fairleigh broke through for three runs in the second inning and five in the third to take a commanding 8-0 lead a third of the way through the contest. NJIT got a run back in the fourth and then five in the fifth inning keyed by a 3-run homer for NJIT RF Matt Weckerle.
 
Having trimmed the deficit to 8-6 halfway through the game, the Highlanders could not get closer, as the home team piled three more runs on u the bottom of the sixth inning for an 11-6 lead. NJIT managed two more runs in the eighth inning, but that's the way it ended, with the Knights on top, 11-6.
 
The loss for NJIT in its first action in nearly two weeks, drops the Highlanders back under .500 at 3-4 after they had won twice at Coppin State to level their record at 3-3. Fairleigh Dickinson (4-7) had lost its previous four, dropping a weekend series vs. Lafayette last weekend, with the last two games in the series going to extra innings. After that, FDU fell to perennial Northeast power St. John's on Wednesday.
 
The box score was true to what might be expected of two New Jersey-based teams who have had their outdoor practice limited by the severe winter that has kept many fields covered in snow and temperatures 20 or more degrees below normal on many days. On Friday, the teams played on a windy day with temperatures in the 40s.
 
Each team had more runs than hits and the game saw 6 fielding errors, 14 walks (seven for each team), two wild pitches, a passed ball, and one hit-by-pitch for each side.
 
The win went to the second of three FDU pitchers, sophomore RHP Ryan McGrath, who notched his first victory of 2014 with 3.1 innings that included 2 hits,2 runs, 4 walks and 2 strikeouts. Starter Nick Cuono, another right-handed sophomore went 4.1 innings and allowed 5 hits and 6 runs (5 earned), with 3 walks and a pair of strikeouts. Junior RHP Eric Snyder got the save, finishing with a spotless 1.1 innings. Snyder has saved 3 of his team's 4 wins.
 
The loss went to the NJIT starter, redshirt senior DJ Roche (1-1), who needed 90 pitches to complete three innings, plus face two batters in the bottom of the fourth inning. Roche was hurt by poor fielding behind him, as only two of the eight runs he allowed were earned. Still, the senior, who is returning after missing all of 2013 following Tommy John Surgery, also allowed 6 hits and hurt himself with 4 walks. However, he fanned five Knights batters.
 
Freshman lefty Jake Yanez relieved Roche and had threes nearly straight across the board in the hits, runs and walks columns. He pitched 2.2 innings and got one strikeout. Tall (6-foot-3) left-hander Brian Sondergard finished up, keeping the Highlanders within striking distance by going 2.1 innings without surrendering a hit , walk, or run. He struck out one.
 
NJIT's leadoff batter, redshirt senior LF Teddy Bickert, had a game-best 3 hits and scored twice. Weckerle, who hit his second home run of the season, raised his team-leading runs batted in total to 10. He finished Friday 1-for-4. C Scott Brosman also drove in three runs and was 2-for-3 at the plate. He also hit a home run.
 
Dylan Sprague, the FDU leadoff batter, was 2-for-5 with two runs batted in and 1B Pat McClure did the most damage, with a 2-for-5 game that included a home run, 4 RBI and 3 runs scored. 3B Joel Roman also drove in four runs. He was 2-for-3.
 
After an FDU leadoff out, an NJIT error and a walk, the Knights' McClure powered a 3-run home run to left field, giving his team a 3-0 lead in the bottom of the second inning.
 
More trouble struck the Highlanders and Roche in the bottom of the third inning, when RF Shane Siebler got on base leading off the frame on a dropped fly ball. Before the frame was over, FDU added five runs and five hits to its total. Leadoff batter Dylan Sprague, the second baseman for the Knights, drove in a pair of runs on a single while McClure and DH John Giakas each had run-scoring singles. Roman also drove in a run with a single in the frame and he later hit a bases-loaded double that brought home three runs for the Knights in the bottom of the sixth.
 
NJIT's first run came across during an infield ground ball double play in the fourth inning and the Highlanders got back into contention with a five-spot in the fifth inning. Brosman and Bickert each singled to drive home a run in the frame ahead of Weckerle's 3-run blast with one out in the fifth. The Highlanders, whose four errors helped FDU throughout, were the beneficiaries of two Knight errors mixed into the 5-run fifth inning action.
 
Trailing 11-6, NJIT struck for two in the eighth inning on Brosman's home run to left. FDU's Snyder came in two batters later and got the last four outs without allowing a baserunner to earn the save.
 
The Highlanders are slated to take on Lehigh at 11 am at FDU's Naiimoli Family Baseball Complex on Saturday and then face the Mountain Hawks again on Sunday.