VIDEO: NJIT Highlights
COLUMBIA, MO - The NJIT baseball team took on Missouri in a seven-inning doubleheader on Friday evening at Taylor Park and fell to the host Tigers 6-1 in the opener, before picking up the programs first-ever win over an SEC opponent with a 2-1 win in game two.
The Highlanders' record now stands at 5-7 on the young season while Missouri moves to 11-3. NJIT snapped a nine-game win streak from the Tigers after the 2-1 nightcap victory.
Friday's games were the first two all-time between the programs and just the second and third time NJIT has taken on an opponent from the SEC, with the first being its 2021 NCAA Regional Opener against Arkansas.
Game Two Recap | NJIT 2, Missouri 1 (7) (Final)
Junior lefty Aidan Kidd registered his third win of the season, improving to 3-1, pitching 4.1 innings while fanning six Tiger batters and letting up just one run. Graduate student Grant Vurpillat pitched two scoreless innings, striking out two batters, allowing two hits after facing eight Tiger batters.
Senior 3B Jared Donnelly led the Highlander offense, hitting 1-for-3 with two RBI in game two, including a two-run blast in the second inning. Senior CF Albert Choi and junior C Cole Fleming went 1-for-3. Fleming scored one run on the Donnelly blast in the second inning.
Donnelly put the Highlanders out in front in the top of the second inning with his second home run of the season, giving NJIT a 2-0 lead. Fleming led off the inning with a double to right field, graduate student LF Andrew Elcock put down a SAC bunt advancing Fleming to third and Donnelly connected on a two-run blast.
Missouri tallied a single run in the bottom of the fifth with runners on the corners on a two-out single to right field by Luke Mann for a one-run game, 2-1. With one out, Vurpillat entered the game with runners on the corners, working his way out of the inning with a 6-4-3 double play.
The Tigers, threatening in the bottom of the sixth with bases loaded, NJIT's Vurpillat worked out of a jam, striking out Ty Wilmsmeyer.
In the top of the seventh with one out and a runner on first, Missouri's JuJu Stevens hit into a game-ending 5-3 double play as the Highlanders secured its first-ever SEC opponent victory with a 2-1 road win.
Game One Recap | Missouri 6, NJIT 1 (7) (Final)
Missouri took control early with three runs in the first and added one more in the second to go ahead 4-0.
NJIT starting pitcher
Ryan Fischer settled down and tossed a pair of scoreless innings in the third and fourth, but the Tigers hit a two-out, two-run home run in the fifth to extend their lead to 6-0.
Aaron Park relieved Fischer and was perfect in the sixth inning, sending down the Tigers in order with a pair of fly outs sandwiched around a ground out.
In the top of the seventh, NJIT's
Kevin Putsky hit his second home run of the season to make the final score 6-1. The home run extended NJIT's streak of hitting at least one home run in each game this season.
Albert Choi paced the Highlanders offense from the leadoff spot with a pair of hits, while catcher
Luke Longo threw out a pair of runners on the base paths.
Up Next:
The Highlanders and Tigers are scheduled to close out the series on Sunday back at Taylor Park in Columbia, MO. First pitch is slated for 12:30pm ET/11:30am CT.
