Little Falls, N.J. – The NJIT baseball team returns home to Yogi Berra Stadium to wrap up the regular season with a three-games series against UMass Lowell. The first two games of the series are set for 6 p.m. starts on Thursday and Friday, with both games streamed on ESPN+. Senior Day is slated for Saturday afternoon at 1 p.m. with live coverage of the game and pregame ceremony available on AmericaEast.TV.

WHAT'S AT STAKE
The Highlanders have clinched a berth in the 2025 Northeast Delta Dental America East Baseball Championships, which will be held May 21-24 at Mahaney Diamond in Orono, Me. NJIT enters the week tied for third in the league standings with an 11-10 conference mark. The Highlanders can still secure a top two seed and a first-round bye by sweeping UMass Lowell this weekend combined with at least one Binghamton loss against UAlbany.

HIGHLANDER HIGHLIGHTS

• Ray Ortiz sits just one home run shy of setting a new NJIT career record for round-trippers. He enters the weekend with 39 career home runs, tying him with Luke Longo who set the record last season.
• Ortiz has the chance to rewrite the NJIT record books this season. Should he play the remainder of NJIT's games this season, he would become the new career leader in games played. Ortiz has already set the single season mark in runs scored (56) as well as the career mark (164.
• Ortiz surpassed the 200 hit milestone at UMBC, becoming the eighth player in NJIT history to reach that mark.
• Mason Wolf has been tearing the cover off the ball as of late, entering the weekend with a 13-game hitting streak which has seen him bat .500 with three home runs and 16 RBI.
• Three Highlanders are batting north of .300 over their last 10 games: Wolf (.475), Andrew Eppinger (.370), Ray Ortiz (.303).
• NJIT has five qualified hitters with an average north of .300 in conference play this season: Andrew Eppinger (.397), Mason Wolf (.388), Ray Ortiz (.366), Ty Sallie (.333) and Cole Campbell (.322).
• Since joining the weekend rotation on a permanent basis, Nate DeSchryver owns a 3-0 record with a 3.16 ERA. He has struck out 41 batters over 31.1 innings pitched in those six outings.
• Ortiz launched three home runs on April 18 at Binghamton, and in doing so became the first Highlander in program history to record three separate 10+ home run seasons.
• 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 home runs (13), doubles (16), hits (63), runs scored (56), total bases (124), slugging percentage (.663) and OPS (1.098).
• Ortiz leads the America East in home runs, hits and runs scored while sitting in second in slugging percentage, OPS and doubles.
• Ortiz has received numerous national honors this season. He was named to the Brooks Wallace Award Watch List for the top shortstop in the nation. Ortiz also landed 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 on April 7 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 29 times, putting up a total of 57 runs in the opening frame this season.
• The Highlanders are 18-6 this season when scoring 6+ runs.
• NJIT is 20-3 this season when leading in the sixth inning or later.
• The Highlanders recently 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.