NEWARK, NJ—Coming from DeLand, Florida, where the weather these days tends toward bright sunshine and temperatures in the 80s, the Stetson baseball team had little trouble adapting to the temperatures in the low 50s and intermittent drizzle in Newark Friday night and the visiting Hatters defeated NJIT 16-6 Friday night in the opening game of the weekend Atlantic Sun Conference baseball series between the teams.
Stetson (22-23 overall; 6-7 A-Sun) won easily on Friday after building an 8-0 advantage by the middle of the fourth inning. The Hatters added a run in the sixth inning for a 9-0 lead before NJIT (17-27; 2-10 A-Sun) surged for five runs in the bottom of the sixth inning. But Stetson extinguished the Highlanders' comeback hopes by plating three more runs in the seventh inning and four runs in the eighth for a 16-5 lead before NJIT got its final run in the bottom of the eighth.
The pitchers of record on both sides were their teams' starters, with sophomore Brooks Wilson upping his record to 5-6 with the win for Stetson on the strength of two-hit, one-walk scoreless pitching in the opening five innings.
The loss went to NJIT's
Sean Lubreski (4-7), who started and lasted four innings while giving up 10 hits and three walks for eight runs six earned.
The next three Highlander pitchers all gave up at least one earned run, with sophomore
Justin Chin allowing a run on three hits over two innings and
Brett Lubreski, Sean's younger brother, allowing a run on two hits in 1.2 innings.
Stetson, which left 12 men on base, pounded out 20 hits against four NJIT pitchers, including six doubles and a home run.
Four Hatters collected three hits apiece. They were: CF Vance Vizcaino (3-for-5; 2 doubles, 5 runs, 2 RBI); 2B Mark Spooner (3-for-5; 3 runs, RBI); 3B Cory Reid (3-for-6; double; run scored; RBI), and LF Kevin Fagan (3-for-3; 2 runs). Vizcaino, Spooner, and Reid were the first three men in the Stetson batting order.
RF John Fussell and DH Kurt Sidwell each had two hits and drove in four runs for the winners. Fussell's hits were a double and his third home run of the season.
NJIT managed seven hits, all singles, against four Stetson hurlers, with CF
Jesse Uttendorfer and SS
Justin Etts each collecting a pair of hits. Etts drove in three runs for the Highlanders.
Reid's RBI double gave the visitors a 1-0 lead in the opening inning and Stetson picked up three more runs in the second inning on a run-scoring single by Vizcaino and a two-run single for Sidwell.
Sean Lubreski's only scoreless inning of the night kept the score at 4-0 through three innings, but Stetson opened the fourth with back-to-back doubles by Vizcaino and 2B Matt Morales and Fussell later added a three-run homer to give the Hatters an 8-0 bulge.
In the sixth inning, Fussell doubled with one out and came around later on C Austin Hale's RBI single.
Down 9-0, NJIT staged an unlikely five-run rally after its first two batters had struck out against Stetson reliever Jack Perkins in the bottom of the sixth inning. Perkins walked the next three batters to load the bases and the door opened for the rally when RF
Michael Anastasia reached first on a strikeout wild pitch, as the first Highlander run crossed the plate.
Etts followed with a two-run single and LF
Evan Pietronico and Uttendorfer added run-scoring singles before another Stetson reliever, Tyler Keller, came in for a strikeout and the final out, stranding two base runners. In an oddity, NJIT had more strikeouts (4) than hits (3) in the 5-run inning.
Having seen its lead trimmed to 9-5, Stetson poured across three in the seventh inning, highlighted by a two-run single for Sidwell and four more in the eighth, with Vizcaino knocking home a run with his second double.
Etts drove in the game's final run with a one-out single in the bottom of the eighth inning.
The teams are scheduled for Game Two of the three-game A-Sun series on Saturday at 1 pm in Bears and Eagles Riverfront Stadium in downtown Newark.
