NEWARK, NJ - Head Coach Robbie McClellan and the 2022 NJIT Baseball team will open their season on Friday at 5pm when they take on Gardner-Webb in the first of three games against three different teams this weekend. The Highlanders will also play Bellarmine on Saturday at 11am, before wrapping up the weekend with nationally-ranked Virginia on Sunday, also at 11am. All three games will take place at Bill Masters Field at Johnny Ross Stadium on the Gardner-Webb campus.

McClellan's squad is coming off of a historic 2021 season which saw the Highlanders reach the NCAA Tournament for the first time and win NJIT's first-ever Division I NCAA Tournament game in any sport, defeating CAA Champion Northeastern 3-2 in the NCAA Fayetteville Regional.

The Highlanders return plenty of fire power from that squad, led by a quartet of captions - Paul Franzoni, David Marcano, Julio Marcano, and Jake Rappaport - who are all in their fifth season with the program. 

Franzoni and the Marcano twins each have more than 400 career at bats and classmate Nick Hussey will get to that milestone this weekend in North Carolina. Other veterans in the lineup include 2021 America East Rookie of the Year Albert Choi, who started all 51 games last season in centerfield and at the leadoff spot in the batting order, Jared Donnelly and Luke Longo. Isiah Daubon, a graduate transfer who started for four seasons at Sacred Heart, will also add a great deal of collegiate experience. Sophomore transfer Ray Ortiz and Brett Helmkamp will compete for the final spot in the lineup, while Andrew Elcock, Andrew Eppinger, Cole Fleming will be some of the first players off the bench and could play their way into the starting lineup at a moment's notice.

Rappaport will return to his closer role after a 2021 season where he not only set the Division I program record for saves (11) and wins (eight), but also became NJIT's first-ever ABCA First-Team All-Region honoree. Ryan Fischer and Grant Vurpillat will once again begin the season in the starting rotation, with sophomore Aidan Kidd won the third weekend starting spot. Croix Jenkins will look to build upon his impressive freshman season out of the bullpen and will be joined by Drew Standen Evan Gegeckas, Alex DiBona, Joe Georgini as arms McClellan will rely on as relievers that could work their way into the rotation. 

Following this weekend's round robin event at Gardner-Webb, the Highlanders will play three more weekend series, taking on Wake Forest, Norfolk St., and Villanova, before opening up their 30-game America East slate in mid-March when they host Hartford. 

Home games will once again be played at Kean University in Union, NJ, while the 2022 America East Tournament will be hosted by Maine on Memorial Day Weekend.