SUMTER, SC—NJIT continued its weekend of baseball in South Carolina, falling to two different teams—UNC Asheville in the morning, 4-1, and Morehead (KY) State in the afternoon, 5-3, at Riley Park.
 
In the games involving Division I teams displaced by the harsh winter weather this February, NJIT defeated Delaware on Friday in Lexington, SC, 5-2. The Highlanders (2-3) will take on UNC Asheville on Sunday at 1:30 pm in Lexington before returning home later on Sunday after the game.
 
In Saturday's first game, UNC Asheville broke a scoreless tie with three runs in the bottom of the fourth inning before NJIT got its run in the next half-inning, the top of the fifth. The Bulldogs (3-5) added an insurance run in the bottom of the eighth.
 
Junior LHP Lucas Clarke (1-1) started and got the win for UNC Asheville, going 6.1 innings and allowing one run on five hits, with two walks and four strikeouts. Freshman RHP Tyler Hughes relieved Clarke for 1.2 scoreless innings and senior left-hander Nick Schavone worked a scoreless ninth inning to pick up his first save of the year. Bulldog pitchers combined to strike out the Highlanders 10 times.
 
NJIT's junior LHP Ian Bentley started and took the loss to go 0-2 in the young season. He yielded seven hits and allowed three runs in six innings, striking out nine and walking two. Freshman James Sofield relieved, allowing a run in two innings.
 
UNC Asheville collected 10 hits, topped by three hits for 1B Joe Zayatz (3-for-4). CF Kyle Carruthers drove in two runs for the Bulldogs.
 
RF Jesse Uttendorfer went 3-for-4 to lead the NJIT hitters. The only run of the game for NJIT came in on a passed ball, with 2B Rex MacMillan, who led off the fifth inning with a single and moved ahead a base on each of two Highlander bunts crossed the plate on the passed ball.
 
The Bulldogs had taken a 3-0 lead in the fourth on an RBI double by Joe Tietjen and a two-run single by Carruthers.
 
In their second game of the day, the Highlanders scored a run in the top of the first inning SS Bryan Haberstroh's single that drove in 1B Johnny Malatesta with two outs.
 
The 1-0 lead help up until Morehead, best known in New Jersey as the alma mater of NY Giants great and current CBS broadcaster Phil Simms, scored five runs in the bottom of the fourth inning. NJIT came back with single runs in the fifth and sixth innings, but that was it and the Morehead Eagles (6-3) finished as 5-1 winners.
 
Junior RHP Matt Anderson (1-0) started and got the win for Morehead with 5.2 innings pitched and four hits and three runs allowed. He was backed by two relievers who combined for 3.1 scoreless innings, with the second, junior Craig Pearcy, getting his third save after 1.1 scoreless, hitless innings of relief. The three Eagles fanned 11 Highlanders after UNC Asheville had notched 10 Ks earlier in the day.
 
The loss went to NJIT freshman RHP Sean Lubreski (0-1), who started and lasted 6.1 innings, allowing the five runs (three earned) on seven hits without a walk, while striking out five. Fellow freshman, Justin Chin, a lefty, allowed a hit and no runs in 1.2 innings of relief work.
 
Haberstroh was 3-for-4, including a triple for NJIT, while the top two batters in the Morehead State order, CF Ryan Kent and 1B Kane Sweeney each collectred two hits. 3B Alex Stephens (1-4, double) and 2B Braxton Morris (1-2) each drove in two runs for the Eagles.
 
Malatesta opened the game with a walk for the Highlanders and scored on Haberstroh's two-out single.
 
NJIT clung to the lead, with Lubreski allowing one hit through the first three innings. Then Morehead broke through in the fourth with its five runs on five hits. SS Robby Spencer singled to drive in the first run and Spencer doubled to bring in the next two runs, before Morris singled for another pair of scores.
 
NJIT got one run back in the fifth when MacMillan walked leading off and eventually came home on an RBI ground out by CF Ed Charlton. The Highlanders inched closer with yet another run in the sixth, as Haberstroh tripled with one out and came in on a ground out RBI for C Cody Kramer.
 
The Highlanders had three more innings at the plate to get closer, but couldn't. They went down 1-2-3 in the seventh and got two hits, including a leadoff single for Charlton, but he was stranded in the eighth and they got a man in scoring position in the ninth to no avail.