Smithfield, R.I. – The NJIT baseball team heads on the road this weekend for a crucial three-game series at Bryant.

LAST TIME OUT
The Highlanders are coming off a road series win at UMBC last weekend, taking the first two games before dropping the finale in walk-off fashion on Saturday. NJIT took game one of the doubleheader last Friday, 4-3, after a Ray Ortiz triple and a throwing error which allowed him to score the go-ahead run. In the night cap, NJIT broke out the bats in a 15-5 victory in seven innings. Ortiz starred in the series for the Highlanders, batting .750 (6-for-8) and reaching base safely in all 10 of his plate appearances in Friday's doubleheader.

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 (53) and is one run shy of tying the career runs mark.
• Ortiz surpassed the 200 hit milestone last weekend 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 10-game hitting streak which has seen him bat .513 (20-for-39) with two home runs and 13 RBI.
• Three Highlanders are batting north of .350 over their last 10 games: Wolf (.513), Cole Campbell (.391), Ray Ortiz (.351).
• NJIT has five qualified hitters with an average north of .300 in conference play this season (Campbell, Ortiz, Doyle, Sallie, Wolf). In addition, Andrew Eppinger is batting .467 in his 13 America East games.
• Since joining the weekend rotation on a permanent basis, Nate DeSchryver owns a 3-0 record with a 3.24 ERA. He has struck out 35 batters over 25 innings pitched in those five 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 (61), runs scored (53), total bases (122), slugging percentage (.693) and OPS (1.138).
• Ortiz leads the America East in home runs, hits and runs scored while sitting in second in slugging percentage 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 27 times, putting up a total of 54 runs in the opening frame this season.
• The Highlanders are 17-5 this season when scoring 6+ runs.
• NJIT is 19-2 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.