FAIRFIELD, CT—NJIT scored four runs in the top of the fourth inning at Fairfield and the Highlanders led the rest of the way Tuesday afternoon in an 8-4 victory over the Stags in the last scheduled non-conference away game the 2016 baseball season.
 
With Tuesday's victory at Fairfield, the Highlanders raised their overall record to 17-26. NJIT has won seven of the last nine games outside the Atlantic Sun Conference, which ranked in the Top 10 conferences in the NCAA's computerized Ratings Percentage Index (RPI) last season.
 
Fairfield, which is tied for first place in the Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference with an 11-4 league mark, drops to 22-21 overall with the home loss vs. NJIT, which finished 4-1 this season in its games vs. MAAC teams (3-0 vs. Saint Peter's; 1-0 vs. Fairfield; and 0-1 vs. Marist).
 
Each team used six pitchers on Tuesday, a common occurrence in non-league games at this point in the season, but the pitchers of record on both sides were their teams' respective starters.
 
NJIT sophomore RHP Johnny Malatesta got the win, raising his personal record to 2-3 with a five-inning start that saw him scatter eight hits and limit the Stags to one run.
 
Fairfield's starter, freshman right-hander Bobby McNiff, took the loss in his first career pitching decision after allowing five hits and four unearned runs in three innings.
 
The other four Highlander runs were charged to Fairfield's fourth pitcher, freshman RHP Peter Horn, who worked two-thirds of an inning and allowed five hits and four runs in the top of the seventh inning.
 
The game was scoreless until staged a two-out rally that began with no one on base in the top of the third inning. LF Evan Pietronico got things started with his 20th double of the season and his 11th two-bagger in the last 10 games.
 
The inning continued with CF Jesse Uttendorfer reaching base on an error, which would make all four ensuing runs for the Highlanders unearned. Pietronico, who had moved to third base on the error, scored when Stephan Halibej followed with a single. And the next batter, freshman 3B, Tom Brady emptied the bases with a three-run homer in the second at-bat of his first college game in his home state (Brady is from Brookfield, which is about 30 miles northwest of Fairfield).
 
Malatesta encountered a jam in the bottom half of the third inning, but he stranded three base runners with a two-out strikeout of Fairfield 1B Mac Crispino, who went on to have a 3-for-5 day for the home team.
 
Fairfield got what would be its only run against Malatesta in the bottom of the fourth inning and the Stags trimmed their deficit to 4-2 with another run in the bottom of the sixth inning against two NJIT relievers.
 
NJIT put the game beyond Fairfield's reach with a four-run top of the seventh inning. Sophomore Edgar Badaraco, who continues to hit well (.294 in 34 at-bats) as the backup catcher, led off the frame with his first college home run as the first batter faced by Horn of the Stags.
 
After an out, 2B Rex MacMillan doubled ahead of a single by SS Justin Etts. Pietronico, who went 3-for-5 out of the number one spot in the batting order, then singled to drive in the second run of the inning. Halibej (2-for-4) picked up his second RBI of the day with a two-out single and Brady capped the scoring with another single.
 
The four-run top of the seventh came in handy for NJIT, since Fairfield scored twice in the bottom half off of two more relievers. Freshman lefty Chris Gibbons allowed two inherited runners to score, but he also got the last two outs of the inning to extinguish what would be the last threat for the Stags.
 
Sophomore Tommy Derer replaced Gibbons with two out in the eighth inning and kept Fairfield off the board and sophomore Justin Chin worked around two hits to blank the Stags in the ninth inning.
 
NJIT had 12 hits—three from Pietronico and two apiece from Halibej, Brady, and Badaraco. Fairfield finished with 16 hits, 15 of which were singles, and left 14 on base, compared to four left on base for NJIT.
 
Crispino and CF Drew Arciuolo each went 3-for-5 for Fairfield and three other Stags collected two hits apiece.
 
NJIT will return to action in the Atlantic Sun, where the Highlanders are 2-9, with three single games this weekend. The Highlanders, who won their first two, and so far, only A-Sun home games against USC Upstate on April 2 and 3. Since then, all nine NJIT A-Sun games have been played on the road and three of the last five conference losses have been of the walk-off variety.
 
The Highlanders are scheduled to host Stetson in the three-game conference series at Bears and Eagles Riverfront Stadium beginning on Friday at 6 pm.