FORT MYERS, FL—Florida Gulf Coast scored three times in the last two innings Sunday for a 4-3 Atlantic Sun Conference baseball win over visiting NJIT. The Eagles, who swept the three-game series, won the last two games of the weekend in walk-off fashion.
 
On Saturday, the Eagles won 6-5 over the Highlanders, but FGCU never trailed. Sunday's loss was more painful for NJIT, which gradually built a 3-1 lead heading into the bottom of the eighth inning before Florida Gulf Coast scored a run in the eighth and then walked off with the win thanks to a pair of runs in the bottom of the ninth inning. The game-winning tally came home on a bases-loaded sacrifice fly with one out by pinch-hitter Ryan Shinn.
 
Florida Gulf Coast (19-17; 5-1 A-Sun) has won four in a row and six of its last seven contests. The Eagles scored a mid-week walk-off win over #16 Florida Atlantic before taking the three-game conference series from the Highlanders (12-21; 2-6 A-Sun).
 
Nine of FGCU's 17 losses on the season have come against teams either ranked in the national Top 25 or receiving votes in the Top 25 polls. NJIT, playing its first season as a member of the A-Sun, which ranked among the top 10 conferences in Division I baseball last season, has lost its last six conference games with the winning run scoring for the Highlanders' opponents in the sixth inning or later in four of the six NJIT A-Sun defeats.
 
On Sunday, the losing pitcher was sophomore RHP John Saviano (0-4). He was the fifth of six pitchers in the game for NJIT, which lost after a third-consecutive terrific start by junior RHP Bryan Haberstroh.
 
A pitcher in high school, Haberstroh did not appear on the mound in his first two college seasons. This year, he has pitched in seven games and he has pitched particularly well in the last three games, all starts, that saw him log at least six innings without allowing more than two runs in any of them. Haberstroh has a loss and two no-decisions in the last three, despite allowing just six runs in 20 innings.
 
Against Florida Gulf Coast, Haberstroh allowed a single run through seven innings before hitting the leadoff batter with a pitch to begin the eighth inning. The Highlanders eventually called three pitchers in from the bullpen to get through the eighth and the leadoff base runner, 2B Jake Noll, managed to score on a one-out single by pinch-hitter Jake Smith.
 
Saviano, who got the last out of the eighth inning by striking out the only batter he faced that frame, took a 3-2 lead into the bottom of the ninth. SS Matt Reardon dropped down a bunt single to lead off and got to second base on the play, as the Highlanders committed their only fielding error of the game.
 
A sacrifice bunt pushed Reardon to third base and he scored on a single by 3B Tyler Selesky, the Eagles clean-up man. After a double steal and a walk, sophomore RHP Tommy Derer replaced Saviano for the Highlanders and Shinn delivered the game-winning blow with a bases-loaded sacrifice fly out to right field.
 
The winning pitcher for Florida Gulf Coast was reliever Mario Leon (3-2), who worked the final 4.1 innings in the victory and allowed two runs (one earned) on three hits, with five strikeouts and a walk. Starter Ryan Lang pitched 4.1 innings and allowed six hits and run, with three walks and three strikeouts.
 
NJIT had a slight edge in hits (9-8) and two of the Highlanders' knocks went for extra bases, a double by RF Matt McKinnon (2-for-3) and the first home run of the season and eighth of his career for senior DH Stephan Halibej (2-for-4).
 
Florida Gulf Coast got two hits each from Reardon, RF Colton Bottomley, and CF Gage Morey. Bottomley's 13th double of the season was the only extra-base hit for the Eagles.
 
Each team scored once in the opening inning, with NJIT's run coming on Halibej's two-out solo homer to left center field and FGCU answering with a two-out double by Bottomley that drove home Noll, who had singled to lead off the frame.
 
Haberstroh kept Florida Gulf Coast off the scoreboard for the next six innings and NJIT regained the lead in the top of the sixth inning, when McKinnon led off with his double and later scored from third base on a ground out by SS Justin Etts.
 
The Highlanders took a 3-1 lead with a tally in the top of the eighth inning, which 2B Johnny Malatesta started with a walk. After a McKinnon sacrifice bunt, 1B Michael Anastasia single to put runners at the corners with one out. C Cody Kramer then hit into a fielder's choice out, with Malatesta scoring from third base on the play.
 
Florida Gulf Coast then pulled out a come-from-behind win with a run in the bottom of the eighth inning and two more in the ninth.
 
NJIT's next six games are scheduled to be played outside the Atlantic Sun Conference and four of those games are set to be played at home, beginning with a 6 pm game on Tuesday at Bears and Eagles Riverfront Stadium vs. Fairleigh Dickinson. FDU, which plays in the Northeast Conference, is 18-17 overall and took three of four games from NJIT last April when the Highlanders were a Division I Independent in 2015.