UNION, NJ - The NJIT baseball team dropped its non-conference regular season finale on Tuesday, falling 7-2 to visiting Saint Peter's at Jim Hynes Stadium.
NJIT's highlight of the came in the bottom of the sixth inning when
Luke Longo led off with his 14th home run of the season to set a new program record for homers in a season. Longo's blast went well over the wall, tucking inside the left field foul pole to make the score 2-1 Saint Peter's. The home run was the 26th of Longo's career and he now sits three away from the career record of 29, which is held by a pair of his former teammates,
Paul Franzoni and
Julio Marcano.
The Highlanders tied things up an inning later when
Jared Donnelly hit a sacrifice fly to score
Cole Fleming, who singled earlier in the inning and advanced to third on a one-out double off the bat of
Ty Sallie.
The Peacocks scored three in the eighth, however, and two more in the ninth to win the game 7-2 and split the two-game, home-and home season series.
NJIT was led offensively by Sallie, who returned to the lineup with a pair of hits after missing Sunday's game with an injury.
Aaron Park struck out a pair in three scoreless innings out of the bullpen and
Tyler Cirone followed it up with two shutout innings of his own.
Longo led off the first inning by getting hit by a pitch, increasing his reached base streak to 30-straight games.
The Highlanders will wrap up their home schedule this weekend with a three-game America East series against first-place Maine. Friday's series opener is slated to begin at 6pm back at Jim Hynes Stadium.
