TEANECK, N.J. - The Fairleigh Dickinson baseball team dropped a double-header Saturday afternoon at the Naimoli Family Baseball Complex 8-5 and 16-2.
The Knights return action Tuesday, March 19 when they host Lehigh at 3:00 p.m. in Teaneck.
Game One: Pennsylvania 8, Fairleigh Dickinson 5
Senior catcher Evan McDonald led the way for the Knights inn game one, going 2-4 at the plate and knocking in a pair of RBI's. Junior Mike Veit and freshman Tom Ruscitti also each finished with a pair of hits.
Freshman right hander Brendan Medoro started on the hill for the Knights, giving up 10 hits and five earned runs over six innings in the losing effort, moving his record to 1-3 on the year.
The Burgundy and Blue struck first, building up a 2-0 lead in the bottom of the first after a Nate Brodsky ground ball scored Veit from third and McDonald managed to drive in Ruscitti on a grounder of his own.
The Quakers answered back immediately, scoring at least one run in the second, fourth, sixth, and seventh innings, a stretch of eight straight total unanswered runs that gave Penn the 8-3 lead.
Though the Knights managed to recoup a few in the bottom of the seventh with the winning run at the plate, they could not complete the comeback and fell 8-5 in seven innings.
Center fielder Tommy Courtney's two-run double in the sixth broke the game open for the Quakers, however, and they would never look back.
Game Two: Pennsylvania 16, Fairleigh Dickinson 2
The Knights struck first yet again in the rubber match Sunday afternoon, however FDU could not manage to outlast the Penn bats, who finished with 15 hits on the afternoon.
Much like game one, it was McDonald who stepped up with the key at bat to give the Knights an early advantage, singling to left to score Nate Brodsky in the bottom of the opening frame.
Following a two-run second from the Quakers, FDU pushed back and managed to knot things back up at 2-2 courtesy of a Nate Rush RBI double, however the Knights offense could not keep the pressure on Penn.
The Quakers would go on to score 14 unanswered runs and come away with a two-game sweep on Sunday as well as a four-game sweep of the series.
FDU's best chance to recoup some runs came in the bottom of the fourth when senior DH Bobby Romano and Rush kicked back-to-back doubles, however the rally ended after one run when Michael Gruber struck out swinging.
Romano paced the Knights at the pate, going 2-4 with a run scored.
Freshman right-hander Griffin Gilbert made the first start of his FDU career on the mound, giving up four hits and two earned runs over three innings.
