NEWARK, NJ—Freshman right-hander Johnny Malatesta came up with his second consecutive lockdown start Sunday, tossing a complete-game three-hitter for NJIT in winning the nightcap of a doubleheader against Fairleigh Dickinson, 8-0, at Riverfront Stadium after the visiting Knights had taken Sunday's opening game, 3-1, to win the first three games of the weekend series between the teams.
 
Exactly a week earlier, Malatesta (5-2) retired the first 23 batters he faced in an eight-inning effort vs. Wagner in a game the Highlanders won, 4-1.
 
Last week's win came a day after NJIT had been swept in a Saturday doubleheader by Wagner on Staten Island. This week's win halted a four-game slide by the Highlanders, who lost at home to Hofstra on April 21 and then the first three vs. FDU, a 6-5, 6-1 sweep on Saturday in Teaneck, followed by the 3-1 loss in Sunday's opening game.
 
The getaway game win kept NJIT's season won-lost record above water, as the Highlanders are 18-17-1. The last time they were under .500 was at 6-7, following a 5-3 defeat at Rutgers on March 24.
 
Fairleigh Dickinson is 14-18 following Sunday's split.
 
Malatesta needed just 82 pitches to dispose of FDU on Sunday, as he allowed three hits and walked one, while striking out six. His combined total in the last two starts is: 15 innings, 5 hits, 1 run, and 8 strikeouts.
 
Malatesta's five wins are tied with junior Ian Bentley (5-3), who pitched well enough to win most games, but took the loss in Sunday's opening game after allowing five hits and three runs in a complete-game effort of his own.
 
The opening-game win went to FDU senior RHP Joe Borelli (2-4), who held the Highlanders scoreless on two hits through 5.2 innings. Knight closer Eric Snyder relieved Borelli to get the last big out in the bottom of the sixth inning and then allowed three hits in a perilous seventh inning, but survived to hang up his ninth save of the season.
 
Junior Logan Frati (3-4), the first of three Knight pitchers to go up against Malatesta in the second game was tagged with the loss after yielding seven hits and six runs (five earned) in four innings.
 
In Sunday's opener, Fairleigh Dickinson broke a scoreless tie with two runs in the top of the fourth inning and the score stayed that way until the Knights added a run in the top of the seventh.
 
Limited to just two hits through the first six innings, NJIT used three hits to build its only run in the bottom of the seventh inning. Down 3-1 with two outs, the Highlanders put runners on first and third, but FDU's Snyder got a fly out to end the game.
 
The two Fairleigh Dickinson runs in the fourth inning came in on a double from DH Ryan Brennan (2-for-3) and a ground out by 1B John Giakas, respectively. FDU's third run came home on a single by CF Riley Moonan.
 
Freshman LF Matt McKinnon (1-for-2, walk) drove in the NJIT run with a single. 1B Stephan Halibej was 2-for-3 and scored the Highlander run.
 
Held to one run on five hits in Saturday's second-game 6-1 defeat at FDU and then to one run on five hits in the 3-1 loss to begin play on Sunday, NJIT broke out with six runs in the second inning to back Malatesta.
 
The Highlanders, who would score all eight of their runs in the getaway game with two outs, got their six second-inning runs on four hits and three walks, plus some shoddy throwing by the Knights in the inning.
 
RF Jesse Uttendorfer (3-for-4, 3 RBI) drove in two runs in the inning with a two-out single and actually came around to score on the play as the Knights threw the ball away. 3B Mike Rampone (1-for-3) had an RBI single in the frame and SS Bryan Haberstroh (1-for-4) drove in a run with a double.
 
Senior CF Ed Charlton (1-for-3) singled in the big inning, stole a base and scored a run. The single was his 200th career hit as a Highlander.
 
Those six runs were way more than the freshman Malatesta would need to halt the losing streak. But the Highlanders added two more in the bottom of the sixth inning, as Uttendorfer added another run-scoring single and 2B Rex MacMillan got an RBI on a sacrifice fly, scoring McKinnon (2-for-2), who had doubled two batters earlier.
 
Moonan, the senior right fielder for FDU, had two of his team's three hits off of Malatesta. Moonan was 3-for-6 in Sunday's doubleheader.
 
With the 2015 schedule winding down (12 games remain with 36 already in the books), the next scheduled action for the Highlanders is Tuesday at 6 pm in Riverfront Stadium against another nearby North Jersey foe, Saint Peter's. When the teams met in Jersey City on March 31, the result was an 8-8 tie in 10 innings, with the game called due to darkness. It was the first baseball tie for NJIT since the Highlanders entered Division I competition in the 2007 season.