UNION, NJ - The NJIT baseball team played in front of their home fans for the first time in almost three years on Friday evening and gave Highlander Nation plenty to cheer about as the squad rolled to a 15-1 victory over Hartford in both teams' America East Conference openers at Jim Hynes Stadium. 

Ryan Fischer struck out the side in the first inning and NJIT (5-8) got two-out RBIs from Albert Choi, Andrew Elcock, and Luke Longo to take an early 3-0 lead in the bottom of the first and the Highlanders never looked back. 

Fischer continued to dominate through seven innings, allowing just two hits and one run, while tying his career-high with 11 strikeouts to improve to 2-2 on the mound this season. Drew Standen relieved Fischer and pitched a pair of scoreless innings. 

The Highlander bats were alive on Friday as the squad belted out a season-high 15 hits, including seven extra base hits, in the win. David Marcano and Choi each had three hits, while Julio Marcano, Paul Franzoni, Jared Donnelly and Elcock each recorded a pair. Franzoni knocked in four runs, two of which came on a towering home run well over the left field wall. Julio Marcano finished with three RBI, while Elcock tallied a pair of RBI.

NJIT and Hartford are scheduled to meet in the second game of the series on Saturday. First pitch is scheduled for 1pm back at Jim Hynes Stadium in Union.