BRONX, NY - The NJIT baseball team pitched its way to a 5-1 victory against host Fordham on Tuesday afternoon in non-conference action at Houlihan Field.

After Fordham went ahead 1-0 in the bottom of the first, NJIT held Fordham off the scoreboard for the duration of the game and manufactured several runs to preserve the win. 

The Highlanders were unable to get a baserunner aboard through three innings, but Luke Longo tied the game in the fourth with his 13th home run of the season. Longo's home run tied Kweisi Mitchell (2007) the program record for most home runs in a season.

NJIT went ahead an inning later as Ty Sallie led off the inning with a single, stole second, advanced to third on a groundout, and scored on an RBI groundout by Dillon Can. 

The Highlanders used more small ball in the eighth inning to add a pair of insurance runs. Cole Fleming led the inning off, stole second, and came around to score on an RBI single from Can. Can scored later in the inning on a two-strike bunt single from Jared Donnelly.

Ray Ortiz led off the ninth with a double and moved to third on a ground out from Kevin Putsky before scoring on a sacrifice fly off the bat of Sallie to make it 5-1.

Tyler Cirone started on the mound for NJIT and piched a pair of innings before handing the ball to Holden de Jong, who tossed three scoreless innings to earn the mound win. de Jong was replaced by Liam Reiner, who held the Rams off the scoreboard in the sixth and seventh innings and handed the ball to Croix Jenkins, who completed the six-out save. 

Tuesday's win was the Highlanders second-straight against Fordham and third over an Atlantic 10 foe this season as the squad opened the season winning two of three from Davidson. 

NJIT will return to the diamond on Friday for the first of three games at UMass Lowell this weekend. First pitch is slated for 6pm on Friday.