The Fairleigh Dickinson baseball team hits the road for one last time before playing a home game as they are scheduled to take on Seton Hall at 3:30 p.m. in South Orange, NJ on Wednesday, April 6.
The Knights (5-17) are coming off a disappointing four-game NEC series at Mount St. Mary's last weekend. FDU lost three of four games to the Mount to fall to 2-6 in league play and all alone in last place.
Scouting Seton Hall
The Pirates come into Wednesday's game with a record of 12-13 and lost two of three last weekend to Big East and Garden State rival Rutgers in Piscataway, NJ. Seton Hall and FDU have both played Manhattan, Stony Brook and NJIT. Each team lost to Manhattan, but the Pirates won low-scoring games over both Stony Brook and NJIT, while the Knights were outslugged by Seawolves and shutout by the Highlanders.
The Knights and the Pirates will be meeting for the 67th time in the all-time series. Seton Hall leads the series, 51-15, and has won 10-straight contests in against FDU. The last Knights' win came in 1996 as they won a slugfest, 15-14. The series dates back to 1954 as both teams played each other every season all the way to 1982. From 1958-1964, the Knights and the Pirates were members of the old CBL Conference before switching over to the old Metropolitan Conference from 1965-1981.
Leading the Knights
Senior Erik Pollag (Sicklerville, NJ/Paul VI) is one of two Knights who is hitting over .400 in the last five games as he has gone 7-for-17 at the plate (.412). Junior Mike Eliasen (Swedesboro, NJ/Gloucester Catholic) is hitting .400 in his last 10 plate appearances. Junior Ryan Kresky (Freehold, NJ/Freehold) has broken out of his recent slump in a big way by hitting .350 over the last five games with two home runs and four RBI's. The Knights' lead-off hitter now leads the team with three home runs on the season, which also leads the NEC. Senior DJ Robinson (Woodbury, NJ/Gloucester Catholic) also broke out of a slump by going 5-for-15 in the last five games. Robinson, who was the Knights' cleanup hitter for most of the season, was dropped down in the order to see if he could get out of the funk he was in.
Senior Brian Dillon (Sarasota, FL/Cardinal Mooney) became the Knights' all-time hit leader with a single to center field this past Sunday. The captain now has 203 career hits. He leads the team with a .379 batting average, 33 hits, two triples, 48 total bases and a .552 slugging percentage.
Senior Nick Melchiorre (Mt. Laurel, NJ/Holy Cross) lowered his team-leading earned run average to 3.74 after not allowing an earned run over seven innings of work last time out at Mount St. Mary's. The fifth-year senior is 2-3 on the season in six starts and has allowed only 23 hits in a team-leading 33.2 innings pitched. He also leads the team with 21 strikeouts and is limiting opponents to a .190 batting average, which ranks second in the NEC.
Up Next
The Knights are scheduled to open the brand-new Naimoli Family Baseball Complex on Friday, April 9, at 3:00 p.m. in Teaneck. FDU will be playing the first of four games in a critical four-game NEC series against Long Island. Games two and three will be played on Saturday, while the final contest will take place on Sunday. Fans are encouraged to bring seats with them because of the lack of bleachers.
