The Fairleigh Dickinson baseball team concluded its 2011 campaign on Sunday at the Naimoli Family Baseball Complex in Teaneck with an 8-2 loss to Bryant. With the victory, the Bulldogs finish the season 30-23 (19-12 NEC), while the Knights end the season 12-38 (9-22 NEC).
Before the game, nine FDU seniors were honored with a ceremony before the game. Brian Dillon (Sarasota, FL/Cardinal Mooney) (Sarasota, FL), Spencer Kelly (Rockville, MD/The Bullis School) (Rockville, MD), Zach Kisling (Marlboro, NJ/Marlboro Central) (Marlboro, NJ), Steven LaForge (Garfield, NJ/St. Mary) (Garfield, NJ), Joe Martino (Westbury, NY/W.T. Clarke) (Westbury, NY), Nick Melchiorre (Mt. Laurel, NJ/Holy Cross) (Mt. Laurel, NJ), Erik Pollag (Sicklerville, NJ/Paul VI) (Sicklerville, NJ), DJ Robinson (Woodbury, NJ/Gloucester Catholic) (Woodbury, NJ) and Chris Theordor (Staten Island, NY/Staten Island Tech) (Staten Island, NY) all saw action in their final game in a Knights' uniform.
Bryant jumped out to a quick 4-0 with a four-spot in the top of the first. With two outs and already leading 1-0, Mike Delponte hit a three-run homer down the right field line to give the visitors an early cushion.
The Knights cut the lead to 4-1 in the bottom of the second as Martino drove home Pollag with an RBI groundout to shortstop.
After both teams failed to score in the third and fourth innings, the Bulldogs scored a single run in the fifth Jordan English's two-out RBI single down the left field line to extend their lead to 5-1.
The Bulldogs then put the game away with a three-run sixth inning, highlighted by a two-out three-run blast over the right-center field fence by Kevin Brown, to go ahead, 8-1.
In the bottom of the seventh, junior JT Sherba (Binghamton, NY/Binghamton) (Binghamton, NY) delivered an RBI single to right field with two outs to score senior Robinson to cut the lead to 8-2, but it was not nearly enough has Bryant took the game, 8-2, to complete a four-game sweep of the Knights.
Junior Mike Eliasen (Swedesboro, NJ/Gloucester Catholic) (Swedesboro, NJ) (2-4) took the loss on the hill for the Knights. He went 5.2 innings, allowing eight runs, five earned, on 11 hits, while striking out four and walking none.
Brian O'Neil picked up the win for Bryant. He went 7.0 innings, allowing two runs, one earned, on only four hits, while walking one and striking out three.
Dillon leaves the program as the Knights' all-time leader in hits with 225 and at-bats with 742. Kelly leaves the program as the Knights' all-time leader in appearances on the mound with 80. Kisling leaves the program with 71 career appearances on the mound to rank third all-time. LaForge leaves the program as the all-time single-season hits leader with 71 which he established after his junior season. Melchiorre leaves the program with 156 career strike outs to finish ninth all-time in Knights' history. Theordor leaves the program with 66 career appearances on the mound for the fourth-most in the history of the program.
After the game, junior Ryan Kresky (Freehold, NJ/Freehold) (Freehold, NJ) was named Team MVP, while Kelly was given the Knight Award. Also, the 2010 Team MVP and Knight Award winners were announced as Robinson was named MVP after being named Second Team All-NEC as a junior, while Martino took home the Knight Award.
