TOWSON, MD—Playing for the first time since March 1, the NJIT baseball team returned Sunday with a  doubleheader split at Towson, taking a 10-8 loss in the first game and an 8-4 victory in the second game.
 
With Sunday's doubleheader split vs. Towson, NJIT is an even 4-4 on the season, while the Tigers are 2-12. The 2-12 for Towson is somewhat misleading, since it includes three losses in Los Angeles at USC in February and two more losses at another traditional power, Wake Forest.
 
NJIT and Towson are scheduled to meet again in a single game on Monday at 2 pm, wrapping up the three-game Spring Break series for the Highlanders.
 
That Sunday's games were played at all was a victory of sorts for the Highlanders, who came in having had more games (8) cancelled due to bad weather than they had actually managed to play (6). All four games scheduled for last weekend at Delaware State were canceled by bad weather.
 
In Sunday's opening game, Towson broke a 1-1 tie in the bottom of the third inning, sending three men across the plate. The Tigers added five more runs over the next three innings for a 9-1 lead, before NJIT rallied for six runs in the top of the seventh inning. The Highlanders got another run in the eighth to pull within one of the lead, 9-8. However, Towson got an insurance run in the bottom of the eighth and then blanked the visitors in the ninth for the 10-8 victory.
 
NJIT never trailed Game 2, scoring once in the top of the third inning for a 1-0 advantage. The score stayed at 1-0 until the top of the fifth, when the Highlanders added two for a 3-0 lead. Towson got a run back in the fifth, but NJIT scored in the next half-inning for a 4-1 lead. The Tigers picked up two runs in the seventh, but the Highlanders extended the lead to 8-3 with a four-run top of the eighth.
 
Towson starting RHP Kevin Ross (1-1) was strong in the opener, limiting NJIT to a run on five hits and no walks in six innings.
 
The Tigers used five relievers to get through the last three innings and the first three men out of the Towson bullpen gave up at least a run, including the first reliever, freshman Thomas Sanchez, who lasted two-thirds of an inning and was charged with five runs (all unearned), while allowing a hit and walking three. The last reliever, junior RHP Lee Lawler, earned his first save of the season, allowing no hits, no runs and just a walk over the last 1.1 innings.
 
For NJIT, senior RHP Joe Fasano (2-1) started and took the loss after lasting three innings and allowing four runs. Fasano had allowed a total of four runs in 10 innings over his first two starts. He was relieved by three freshmen on Sunday.
 
Justin Chin, who did not allow a run in either of his first two relief appearances and then allowed two in his last relief appearance vs. UNC Asheville on March 1, was roughed up by Towson for five runs (three earned) in three innings. John Saviano, making his first appearance, allowed a run in one inning and Tommy Derer, also making his college debut, pitched a scoreless frame to finish up for NJIT.
 
NJIT, which had eight hits in the opener, got six of them from the heart of the order, as 3B/2B Mike Rampone, DH Stephan Halibej, and SS Bryan Haberstroh all getting two hits apiece. Rampone and Haberstoh each drove in a pair of runs and they each hit a double.
 
NJIT scored all six of its seventh-inning runs with two out, highlighted by Rampone's two-run single, a run-scoring single for C Cody Kramer, and a two-RBI double by Haberstroh.
 
Towson, which also had eight hits in Game One, got them from eight different players, including 2B/C Brady Policelli, whose hit was a home run leading off the bottom of the first inning; a triple from SS Peter Bowles, who used it to drive in the two Tiger runs in the third inning; and doubles by C Billy Plante, CF Richie Blosser, and 3B/2B Colin Dyer.
 
After NJIT had closed to within a run of the lead at 9-8, Towson scored its insurance run on a sacrifice fly by 1B Brendan Butler after Policelli had walked leading off, stole second, and reached third base on a wild pitch.
 
The Highlanders got a leadoff walk in the ninth inning, but couldn't cash in after Towson's Lawler got a strikeout and an infield out to end the game after NJIT had a runner on third base with one out.
 
Game Two saw NJIT's junior LHP Ian Bentley pick up his first win of 2015 with a strong start of six innings and two runs allowed (one earned). Bentley a 2nd-team All-New Jersey College Baseball Association Division I honoree in 2014 after notching six wins and two saves a year ago, had lost his first two 2015 starts.
 
Redshirt senior LHP Tyler Kapp worked the last three innings for the save, giving him a save in all four NJIT wins this season. He allowed two runs (one earned) in three innings.
 
The losing pitcher for Towson was sophomore LHP Matt Golczewski (0-3), who went the first five innings, allowing two earned runs (three total). The next Tiger pitcher, freshman LHP David Marriggi, last three innings and allowed five runs (two earned), before Christian Duclos finished up with a scoreless ninth inning.
 
NJIT knocked out 14 hits in the nightcap, paced by Haberstroh, who graduated from Lancaster Catholic HS in Pennsylvania a year after Bentley, the Highlanders' winning pitcher. Haberstroh hit a double in the second game, giving him two in what was 6-for-10 day in the two games.
 
Rampone hit a triple in Game 2 to finish the day 4-for-6 and CF Ed Charlton doubled in the nightcap for NJIT. RF Jess Unterdorfer added two hits for the Highlanders.
 
Towson, too, had 14 hits in the nightcap, but only managed four runs in the process, as the Tigers stranded 15 in the nine-inning game.
 
Towson got 3-for-5 games from Bowles, Butler, and Blosser and two of the hits for Butler were doubles, while Bowles hit his first home run of the season.
 
With Bentley and Golczewski keeping their foes off the board early, NJIT got the game's first run when Haberstroh, Rampone, and Halibej singled in succession to begin the third inning.
 
Leading 4-3 after seven innings, the Highlanders broke loose with four runs. Unterdorfer reached base on a one-out error and scorer when Charlton, the next batter, doubled. Haberstroh singled to bring in Charlton and Rampone knocked in Haberstroh with a triple before scoring himself on a sacrifice fly for Kramer.
 
The bottom of the ninth inning was not easy for NJIT's Kapp, who allowed a run on two hits, while leaving the bases loaded and working around two errors made behind him in the frame.
 
After playing Monday at Towson, the Highlanders will stay in the Baltimore area for a 1 pm game at UMBC on Tuesday.