The Fairleigh Dickinson baseball lost the final game of its four-game series versus Long Island, 7-3, Saturday afternoon in Brooklyn, NY. The Blackbirds took three of the four games in the series. After trailing early, the Knights rallied to tie the game at three in the fifth inning before Long Island scored four unanswered runs to earn the victory. With the victory, the Blackbirds improve to 5-18 (3-5 NEC), while the Knights fall to 4-16 (3-5 NEC) overall.
Long Island scored single runs in the first and third to take a 2-0 lead off Knights' starter Michael Strachman (Roslyn Heights, NY/Roslyn).
The Knights tied the game in the fourth, 2-2, as junior Brian Dillon (Sarasota, FL/Cardinal Mooney) scored on sophomore Ryan Kresky (Freehold, NJ/Freehold)'s RBI groundout and sophomore Scott Morrison (Coral Springs, FL/J.P. Taravella)'s run-scoring single, scoring junior DJ Robinson (Woodbury, NJ/Gloucester Catholic).
Long Island took back the lead in the bottom half of the inning on Sam Sciamarelli's RBI groundout.
Once again, the Knights tied the game in the fifth when junior Steven LaForge (Garfield, NJ/St. Mary) scored on a throwing error by the Blackbirds' shortstop.
The Blackbirds took the lead for good in the bottom half of the fifth on an unearned run. They plated one more run in the sixth and added two more insurance runs in the eighth. The Knights were never able to get any closer and fell to the Blackbirds, 7-3.
The senior Strachman (1-3) pitched 6.1 innings for the Knights. He gave up five runs, with only two being earned. He scattered 11 hits, walked one and stuck out none. Junior Spencer Kelly (Rockville, MD/The Bullis School) finished the game for the Knights on the hill.
Matt McCormick pitched another great game for Long Island as he limited the Knights to only four hits in 7.0 innings of work. He gave up three runs; two earned, walked three and struck out three. Evan Zerff pitched the final 2.0 innings to pick up the save.
Gerard Tingos went 4-for-5 to pace the Blackbirds' 13-hit attack. Greg DeSantis added three hits for Long Island. The Knights also committed three errors to help the Blackbirds.
The Knights return to action on Wednesday, April 7, as they travel to South Orange, NJ to take on Seton Hall. First pitch is scheduled for 3:30 p.m.
