ELON, NC - The NJIT baseball team fell 12-7 to host Elon on Sunday as the host Phoenix earned the three-game series victory this weekend at Latham Park.

NJIT won Friday's game 5-4 in extra innings before dropping the final two games of the series. 

The Highlanders got on the scoreboard first with a pair of runs in the top of the second. Freshman Jack Stead's first-career hit scored the game's first run, while NJIT took advantage of an Elon error to go in front 2-0 later in the inning.

After Elon scored three in the home half of the second, the Highlanders rallied with four runs in the fourth to take a 6-3 lead. NJIT once again took advantage of some miscues by the Phoenix as the only RBI of the inning was a single off the bat of Austin Francis. 

As it did in the second inning, Elon once again answered immediately. This time, the Phoenix scored seven runs in the bottom of the fourth to go ahead 9-6, before adding a 10th run in the fifth to add to their lead. 

Cade Ladehoff's first-career home run made it 10-7 in the seventh, but that was as close as the Highlanders would get. Elon added a pair of runs in the seventh to make the final score 12-7.

Ray Ortiz recorded a pair of hits to lead the NJIT offense, while Ladehoff reached once via a hit and twice by walks. 

The Highlanders finished with nine hits and five walks, but left 11 runners on base in Sunday's loss. 

NJIT will be back in action next weekend when it travels to VMI for a four-game series. Game one in the series is slated for 3pm Friday in Lexington.