Box Score

BRIDGEPORT, Conn. – The Fairleigh Dickinson baseball team dropped its series opener to Sacred Heart 6-5 on Thursday afternoon at the Harbor Yard.
 
The Knights (8-15, 6-2 NEC) led 5-3 but were unable to hold off the Pioneers (9-22, 3-3 NEC), who rallied in the late innings to come away with the victory.
 
Junior third baseman Bobby Romano continued his torrid stretch with a 4-for-5 afternoon including a pair of RBI and one run scored. Romano has now recorded a hit in six straight games and is nine for his last 10 at the dish.
 
The Pioneers led 2-0 after two thanks to a first-inning sacrifice fly by Ted Shaw and a second-inning, run-scoring single by catcher Cody Doyle.
 
Romano ignited a four-run third for the Knights by plating Hunter Reeser and Brandon Seltzer with a single to left. First baseman Ryan Brennan followed with an RBI groundout and then Owen Vonesslinger knocked in Romano with a base hit to give the Knights a 4-2 lead.
 
Leading 4-3 in the fifth, Brennan helped extend the Knights' lead back to two with a sacrifice fly for his team-leading 26^th RBI of the season. The run batted in was Brennan's 94^th of his career as the reigning NEC Player of the Week continues his ascent toward the century mark.
 
FDU left-hander Evan Layne got the start and left after four innings and three runs. Layne battled control issues and dealt four walks but did match his career-high with six punch-outs on the afternoon.
 
Freshman right-hander James Sharkey relieved Layne and kept the Pioneers out of the run column in the fifth and sixth frames before permitting a run in the seventh. The Pioneers scratched across the run without the aid of a hit as their fourth tally of the game came via a sacrifice fly after a pair of walks and a wild pitch.
 
After Sacred Heart's Jackson Aldom stranded a pair of Knights in the top of the eighth, the Pioneers took control in their turn at bat. A one-out double by Keith Klebert and a walk by Shaw kick started things for the home team.
 
Then, third baseman Austin Markmann tied the game with a single and the next batter, P.J. DeFilippo, knocked in the go-ahead run with a single through the left side of the infield off of Dillon Forsythe, which proved to be the game-winner.
 
Mike Lembo came on for the Pioneers in the ninth and retired the Knights in order to net his first save of the season and close out the victory.
 
In the loss, Reeser tallied his second multi-hit game of the campaign with a 2-for-4 effort and scored twice, while catcher Evan McDonald extended his team-best eight-game hitting streak with 1-for-5 game.
 
These two teams are back at it again tomorrow with a doubleheader beginning at 1:00 p.m. Seniors Danny Demetrops and Logan Frati are set to take the mound for the Knights and will be opposed by right-handers Brent Teller and Kevin Czapelski, respectively.