PRINCETON, NJ - The NJIT baseball team scored three runs in the first and never looked back on Wednesday afternoon, defeating host Princeton 14-5 at Clarke Field.

The Highlanders snapped a five-game losing with the victory and improved to 17-18 on the season, while Princeton's record now stands at 6-22. Wednesday's meeting was the first all-time between the Garden State squads. 

NJIT belted out four home runs and 20 hits against the Tigers, with two of those home runs coming off the bat of graduate student Paul Franzoni, who now has a team-high eight this season and has tied classmate Julio Marcano for the D1 program career record with 25. Franzoni and Marcano need just one more home run each to tie Chris Schwartz (2001-04) for the all-time program record.

The Highlanders' three-run first came courtesy of a two-RBI single from Isiah Daubon and and run-scoring single off the bat of Luke Longo.

Princeton made it 3-1 with a leadoff home run in the bottom half of the first, but the Highlanders were able to quickly go back ahead by three thanks to Franzoni's first long ball of the afternoon, a solo shot in the third.

The Tigers cut the margin to 4-3 with a pair of runs in the bottom of the third, but that was as close as they'd get.

NJIT scored an unearned run in the fourth to go ahead by two and doubled its lead to 7-3 with a home run from Albert Choi in the sixth inning. The Highlanders broke the game open an inning later as back-to-back doubles from Nick Hussey and Cole Fleming scored three runs to make the lead 10-3.

Franzoni's second blast of the day was a three-run shot in the eighth that put NJIT ahead 13-4 before Hussey followed it up one batter later with a home run of his own to make it 14-4.

Princeton scored a run in the bottom of the ninth to make the final score 14-5.

Drew Standen tossed the final 2.1 innings for NJIT, allowing just one run and was credited with the victory. Standen and four other Highlanders' pitchers - Tyler Cirone, Aaron Park, Croix Jenkins, and Alex DiBona - combined to pitch NJIT to the mid-week victory and help the Highlanders improve to 3-2 over opponents from New Jersey this season.

All nine players in the Highlanders' starting lineup had at least one hit on Wednesday, with Longo, Hussey, and Fleming leading the way with three hits apiece. The 20 hits were the most for the program since the squad tallied 20 in the 2017 season finale vs. USC Upstate.

NJIT returns to action on Friday with the first contest of a three-game America East Conference against Stony Brook. First pitch is slated for 8pm at Jim Hynes Stadium in Union.  Read Full Article