Binghamton, N.Y. – Holding onto first place in the America East standings, the NJIT baseball team begins its conference road slate at Binghamton this weekend. The three-game series opens Friday night at 6 p.m. with the middle game slated for 2 p.m. on Saturday. The series concludes on Sunday afternoon with a 1 p.m. first pitch.

LAST TIME OUT
After splitting its rain-shortened weekend series with Wagner over the weekend, the Highlanders got back in the win column with a 9-0 shutout win over Saint Peter's on Tuesday. Jack Stead and Mason Wolf each knocked in three runs, while Cole Campbell drove in a pair while scoring three times. Five NJIT pitchers combined for the shutout.

PITCHING PROBABLES
Friday: Nate DeSchryver (1-3, 6.23 ERA) vs. Hayden Tarisa (2-2, 6.03 ERA)
Saturday: MT Morrissey (4-3, 4.87) vs. Vincent Luther (0-0, 4.91)
Sunday: Brandon Peterson (3-2, 5.80) vs. TBA

HIGHLANDER HIGHLIGHTS

• Ray Ortiz has been an offensive force for NJIT this season, leading the team in almost all the major offensive categories. He enters the weekend leading the team in batting average (.333), home runs (9), RBI (27), doubles (13), hits (45), runs scored (37), total bases (89), slugging percentage (.659), on-base percentage (.413), OPS (1.072)
• Ortiz leads the America East in home runs, doubles and runs scored while sitting in the top three in slugging percentage, hits, triples and OPS.
• Ortiz has reached base safely in all 33 games he has played in this season.
• Ortiz was named to D1Baseball.com's Week Six Top 50 Shortstops in the nation, coming in at No. 47 on the list.
• Nate DeSchryver was named America East Pitcher of the Week last Monday after a stellar outing against UAlbany, striking out 11 and allowing just one hit over five shutout innings.
• DeSchryver became the third Highlander hurler to be named America East Pitcher of the Week this season, joining MT Morrissey and Brandon Peterson.
• Peterson was named America East Pitcher of the Week on March 31. He fired 6.2 innings while allowing just one hit and no runs in the win over Maine last Sunday.
• Morrissey was named America East Pitcher of the Week on March 4 after a stellar outing against Iona, pitching seven innings and striking out seven while allowing just one run.
• Morrissey struck out a career-high nine batters on March 29 against Maine.
• Cole Campbell was also recognized by D1Baseball.com before the season as one of the top 50 catchers in the country.
• Holden deJong was named by Perfect Game as the America East Preseason Pitcher of the Year, as well as a Top 250 College Prospect by D1Baseball.com.
• Andrew Eppinger collected his first multi-home run game of his career on March 28 against Maine. The graduate student entered the game with just one home run in his career.
• NJIT has scored in the first inning in 20 of its 34 games, putting up a total of 39 runs in the opening frame this season.
• The Highlanders are 13-2 this season when scoring 6+ runs.
• NJIT is 14-0 this season when leading after six innings.
• The Highlanders just concluded a stretch of playing 16 out of 17 games at home. NJIT will now play 14 of its final 18 regular season games on the road, the exact same stretch the Highlanders played to open the season.
• The Highlanders were picked to finish tied for third in the America East preseason poll. NJIT was tied with Maine with 21 points apiece, behind second-place selection Binghamton and first-place pick Bryant.