Live Stats

The Fairleigh Dickinson baseball team will be gunning for its 20th victory of the season on Tuesday at home against Garden State foe NJIT, a feat they have not accomplished since 1999.  First pitch at the Naimoli Family Baseball Complex in Teaneck, NJ is scheduled for 3:30 p.m.

Last Time Out: The Knights (19-18-1) are coming off a successful 4-1 week that saw them take three out of four against Central Connecticut State over the weekend to remain in third place in the NEC standings and second in the playoff race.  FDU took the first three games of the series before falling in the finale, 12-4. 

Notes:

- FDU's 19 wins are the most for a Knights' team since the 1999 team won 22 games.

- The 13 wins in the NEC are the most conference wins in the 21st century and the most since the 1997 team finished 14-7 in conference play.

- With its series victory over CCSU, FDU has now won four straight NEC series for the first time since the 1999 season.

Senior co-captain Ryan Kresky (Freehold, NJ/Freehold) hit .562 (9-for-16) for the week with six runs scored, seven RBIs, three doubles, one triple, three walks, was hit by a pitch twice and hit two RBI sacrifice flies, while slugging .875 and getting on base at a clip of .609.  Against CCSU, he finished the series hitting .615 (8-for-13) with three doubles and a triple, five runs scored, five RBIs, while slugging 1.000 and recording an on-base percentage of .706 as he was hit by a pitch twice and walked two more times. 

Kresky had his hitting streak snapped at 14 games in the series finale against the Blue Devils.  Against Siena, he picked up his 200^th career hit and now has the second most hits in FDU history with 208, needing 18 more to become the FDU all-time hit king, which would break former teammate Brian Dillon (Sarasota, FL/Cardinal Mooney)'s (Class of 2011) record of 225.

Senior Matt Holsman (Coral Springs, FL/Stoneman Douglas) had a big week as well, hitting .421 (8-for-19) with seven runs scored, one RBI and two doubles.  He also walked twice, was hit by a pitch twice, stole a base and laid down a sacrifice bunt.  Holsman hit safely in all five games, including a 3-for-5, two runs scored effort against Siena and a 2-for-4 performance, including a double and a RBI, in game three against CCSU.  Holsman scored two runs in the first two games of the CCSU series and now has 199 career hits.

Freshman Jordan Ritz (Newport News, Va./Woodside) hit .333 (5-for-15) for the week with five runs scored, two RBIs and two key sacrifice bunts, which both came in the series-opening win vs. CCSU.  In the CCSU series, Ritz hit .357 (5-for-14) with five runs scored, two RBIs and the two sacrifice bunts.

Freshman Pat McClure (Fayetteville, N.Y./Fayetteville-Manlius ) had a memorable week as he collected two game-winning hits.  At Siena, the Knights' backstop led off the top of the 10^th inning with his first career home run, giving FDU a 9-8 lead as they would hang on to win the game by that score.  After the Knights blew a 7-4 lead in the second game of the CCSU series, McClure came to the plate in the bottom of the eighth with the game tied at seven and promptly drove home junior Kyle Weeks (Middle Island, N.Y./Longwood) with a walk-off single to right field, giving FDU the 8-7 victory, thus sweeping the first doubleheader.

Freshman Riley Moonan (Syracuse, N.Y./Cicero North) had a very clutch week for FDU.  He hit safely in all five games and collected nine RBIs.  Against Siena, he ripped a bases-loaded double with the game tied at five to give FDU an 8-5 lead in the seventh inning.  Trailing 3-2 in the second game of the series against CCSU, Moonan once again came to the plate with the bases loaded and crushed a 1-0 pitch over the right-field fence for a grand slam and his first career home run, giving FDU a 6-3 lead as FDU scored six times in the bottom of the fourth inning.

Freshman Eric Snyder (Slatington, Pa./Northern Lehigh) picked up two wins in relief (at Siena, CCSU game two) and collected his NEC-leading eighth save in the third game against CCSU.  He is now one save away from tying Spencer Kelly (Rockville, MD/The Bullis School) ('11) for the single-season record for saves.

- The Knights currently rank first in the NEC in on-base percentage (.366) and second in both batting average (.276) and fielding percentage (.971).

- Kresky leads or is near the top of almost every statistical category in the NEC.  He leads the conference with a .426 batting average, 73 points ahead of second place.  Junior Eric Anderson (Allendale, N.J./Northern Highlands) is third with a batting average of .341, while freshman Shane Siebler (Nazareth, Pa./Nazareth Area) comes in at no. 15 with a .304 average.

- Kresky is tied for second in hits with 55, two behind the leader, tied for first in runs scored with 33, tied for eighth in home runs with four, leads the NEC in doubles with 15, tied for fifth in RBIs with 29, and leads in total bases (84), walks (30), on-base percentage (.547) and slugging percentage (.651).  He leads Anderson, who ranks second in the NEC in both on-base percentage (.435) and slugging percentage (.553), by over 112 points in on-base and 98 points in slugging.

- Anderson ranks third in the NEC in home runs with seven and ninth in total bases with 68 to go along with his no. 2 rankings in on-base and slugging percentage.

Scouting NJIT: The Highlanders (16-15), who participate in the Great West Conference, are currently in second place in their eight-team league.  NJIT took the first three games of its four game series with North Dakota at home this past weekend before losing the finale, 6-3.  The Highlanders have won 11 of their last 14 contests, which started with a victory over Hartford that salvaged the final game of a three-game set.  NJIT and FDU have both played Hartford and Saint Peter's this season with the Knights losing at Hartford earlier in the season.  FDU defeated Saint Peter's at home earlier in the year, while the Highlanders lost two out of three to the Peacocks.

NJIT currently has five regulars hitting over .300.  Junior infielder Jeff Peterson leads the way with a .338 average, while junior and freshman outfielders Matt Weckerle and Ed Charlton are hitting .333.  Junior infielder DJ Roche is right behind at .331 and senior outfielder James D'Aloia rounds out the .300 averages with a .306 average.  Weckerle leads the team with 42 hits and 30 RBIs to go along with his three home runs.  Senior catcher Brian Bleakley, who is hitting .295, is the team's top power threat, leading the team in doubles (11), home runs (5) and slugging percentage (.562) to go along with his second-best 24 RBIs.

As a team, the Highlanders are hitting .292 (309-for-1060) and have scored 203 runs (6.5 runs per game).  They have struck out a whopping 208 times, drawn 98 walks and have committed 42 errors (.962 fielding percentage) on defense.  Opponents are hitting only .255 on NJIT pitching and have scored 154 runs (5.0 runs per game), drawn 112 walks and struck out 214 times as the pitching staff has recorded a team ERA of 4.45.

All-Time Series: NJIT leads the all-time series 3-1 after defeating the Knights twice last season, 3-0 at Fordham and 5-3 at home.  FDU defeated the Highlanders two seasons ago at home, 14-2.  NJIT won the only other meeting in the series, 3-2, during the 1983 season.

Next Up: The Knights will travel to Smithfield, RI this weekend to take on first-place Bryant in four-game NEC series.  Despite being in first place, the Bulldogs are ineligible for the NEC Tournament because they are in their final year of transitioning to Division I.  Friday's series opener will start at 3:00 p.m. followed by a pair of seven-inning contests on Saturday beginning at 1:00 p.m.  The series finale will be Sunday at 1:00 p.m.