ALBANY, NY—Having taken a brief detour during the week, the NJIT baseball team returned to its winning path Saturday afternoon, sweeping a pair of 7-inning games at UAlbany, 5-2 and 9-3.
 
NJIT (15-9-1) posted a 7-0-1 record from March 27 through April 4, before dropping single games at home against Fairfield and Rider on April 6 and 8, respectively.
 
But the Highlanders headed north to New York's capital city and never trailed at any point in sweeping the Great Danes (7-12) on Saturday. The Highlanders and Great Danes are scheduled to play another doubleheader at UAlbany on Sunday starting at noon.
 
NJIT scored all five of its opening-game runs in the first three innings, while UAlbany plated single tallies in the bottom of the first and bottom of the fourth against a combination of three Highlander pitchers.
 
Freshman Tommy Derer the first of two NJIT relievers went to 2-1 with three innings of scoreless relief (allowed two hits). Senior RHP Joe Fasano started for the Highlanders and pitched into the fourth inning, but did not get the full four innings required of a starter to claim a win in a game scheduled for seven innings. Fasano allowed both UAlbany runs (one earned).
 
Derer lowered his earned run average to 0.57, best on the team among pitchers with at least 3 innings pitched. He has allowed two runs (one earned) in 15.2 innings this season. Kapp pitched a scoreless seventh inning to notch his sixth save of the season. His ERA is 1.11.
 
Junior left-hander Ian Bentley (5-2) went the distance in the second game, posting his team-leading fifth win. Bentley has a 2.84 ERA, best among the Highlander starters.
 
NJIT built a 6-0 lead for Bentley, who has won his last five starts after taking losses in his first two 2015 decisions. UAlbany scored single runs against the junior in the fourth, fifth, and sixth innings, but the Highlanders tacked on a run in the fifth and two more in the sixth for the easy win behind the junior, who notched his 14th career victory.
 
For UAlbany, sophomore Stephen Woods (2-3) started and took the loss in the opener after allowing five runs (three earned) in 2.1 innings. Junior Sam DeCelle allowed just one hit and no runs in 4.2 innings of relief, but it was too late for the Great Danes.
 
In Game Two, Great Dane starter Joe Romero (2-1) allowed six of NJIT's nine runs and was charged with the loss.
 
NJIT had six hits in the opener, two by freshman RF Jesse Uttendorfer, batting leadoff. Highlander runs batted in went to 3B Mike Rampone, SS Bryan Haberstroh, 1B Johnny Malatesta, and 2B Rex McMillan.
 
UAlbany got nine hits in the first game, five of which came from the top two men in the batting order—CF Will Miller (3-for-4) and C Craig Lepre (2-for-3).
 
The Highlanders started the scoring after Uttendorfer began the game with a single and moved up on a pair of wild pitches by UAlbany's Woods. The Highlander leadoff man then scored on a passed ball. CF Ed Charlton, who had followed Uttendorfer with a walk, came home on a double by Haberstroh.
 
The Great Danes scored in their half of the first inning, but gave the run right back in the top of the second inning on a two-out, bases-loaded walk to Rampone.
 
The visitors scratched out two more runs in the top of the third inning for a 5-1 lead. The first two UAlbany batters singled off of Fasano in the bottom of the fourth inning, bringing on Derer, who allowed one inherited runner to scorer, but limited the damage to one run. The freshman from Philadelphia then faced the minimum six batters in his last two innings on the mound. Kapp then worked around a two-out error to lock down the win in the seventh inning.
 
After two scoreless innings to begin the nightcap, NJIT broke out for four runs in the top of the third inning and two more scores in the fourth, putting the Highlanders in the driver's seat with their ace left-hander on the mound.
 
The Highlanders rapped out 11 hits, including a home run each for Charlton and Haberstroh, who shared the team lead for the season with five apiece. Charlton was 3-for-4 and drove in two runs, while Haberstroh was 2-for-3, with three RBI. C Stephan Halibej was 3-for-4 with two runs batted in and LF Matt McKinnon finished 2-for-4.
 
As they had in the opener, Miller and Lepre paced the Great Danes in the second game, this time with two hits each. One of Lepre's knocks was a double.
 
Haberstroh keyed NJIT's four-run third inning with a two-out, three-run homer to left left center field. The first Highlander run had crossed the plate on a UAlbany balk.
 
Charlton hit his home run, a two-out, two-run blast, in the fourth inning and NJIT's fifth-inning run came home during an infield double play. Halibej's two-out single scored the last two Highlander runs in the sixth inning.
 
NJIT, which finished 2014 with a 20-25 won-lost record, also got its 15th win last season against UAlbany. However, that win came in the 35th game of the 2014 season and was played on May 3. This season's 15th win arrived in the 25th game and was played on April 11.