BALTIMORE, MD - The NJIT baseball team held off a late rally from host UMBC on Friday to win 7-6 in the first of a three-game America East Conference series this weekend at Alumni Field.

The Highlanders led 7-2 heading into the bottom fo the ninth, but the Retrievers scored four times before recording an out and NJIT Head Coach Robbie McClellan handed the ball to senior Joe Georgini.

Georgini made it look easy, getting a pop out and a ground ball before striking out the last hitter to preserve the series opening win. The Highlanders have won three in a row and are over .500 on the season (22-21) for the first time in almost three weeks. UMBC dropped to 19-28 in 2022.

Friday's game was scoreless until the fifth inning when Ray Ortiz crushed his third home run of the season to put the Highlanders in front. The lead was short-lived, however, as UMBC tied it in the bottom of the fifth before a 45 minute rain delay.

When the game resumed, NJIT took the lead almost immediately as Albert Choi led off the sixth with a single and scored one batter later on an RBI single from Paul Franzoni. 

The Retrievers once again answered right away, scoring a run in the home half of the fifth inning to tie the contest 2-2.

NJIT had its big inning in the seventh, scoring four times to go ahead 6-2. The Highlanders took advantage of a UMBC error to score a pair of runs and Kevin Putsky had the big blow of the inning, roping a triple off the wall to score Franzoni. 

The Highlanders added a run in the eighth when David Marcano made it to third on a single from Julio Marcano, and scored after an error on the play.

The lead remained 7-2 until the bottom of the ninth when UMBC went on its aforementioned rally and Georgini slammed the door shut for his third save of the season.

David Marcano, Choi, and Putsky paced the NJIT offense with two hits each.

Ryan Fischer started on the mound of the Highlanders and went five innings, striking out two. He was relieved by Evan Gegeckas who tossed a pair of scoreless innings in relief. 

NJIT and UMBC will return to Alumni Field on Saturday at 2pm for game two of the series.