TEANECK, N.J. – The Fairleigh Dickinson baseball team dropped the opening game of its three-game series to LIU Brooklyn 5-3 at the Naimoli Family Baseball Complex on Thursday afternoon.
 
The Knights (7-26-1, 5-8 NEC) fell behind 5-0 and were unable to complete the comeback against the Blackbirds (14-20, 6-7 NEC), who moved one game in front in the NEC standings.
 
Freshman outfielder Brett Mercier came off of the bench and paced the Knights offense with a 2-for-2 day, which included his first career home run – a two-run shot – which resulted in the team's final two runs of the day.
 
Fellow freshman Tom Ruscitti also went deep in the loss as he hit a solo shot for his eighth home run of the season.
 
First-year right-hander Brendan Medoro provided the team with some quality work out of the bullpen as he came on and pitched six innings and limited the Blackbirds to just one run.

"It was a good effort but LIU did a solid job of not giving us anything," said Justin McKay after the loss. " They took advantage of our walks and produced runs and on the mound made good pitches. Brandon gave us six big innings, Chris (Quijano) did a great job pitching out of a jam in the ninth inning and Brett's home run in the seventh was big for us. We are looking forward to getting back out there tomorrow."

After the first three Blackbirds reached against FDU starter Emmanuel Corporan, the right-hander limited the damage to just one run, which came on a sacrifice fly by Alex Briggs.
 
In the home first, the Knights threatened as freshmen Nate Brodsky and Adam Frank started the inning with a pair of singles. With one away, Salvatore Monticciolo stroked a base hit to right field but some baserunning miscues resulted in both Brodsky and Frank being thrown out, which abruptly ended the rally.
 
The Blackbirds would strike for three in the second, highlighted by Rob Griswold's two-run single and one in the third to stake a 5-0 lead for their starter Alec Huertas (2-2). Huertas provided his team 6.2 innings, allowed seven hits and three runs, while striking out seven.
 
Huertas' first mistake of the game came when he surrendered a leadoff homer to Ruscitti but the Blackbirds' right-hander retired the next three Knights in order.
 
In the seventh, Bobby Romano reached on a hit by pitch and McKay turned to Mercier for a pinch-hitting opportunity Mercier delivered for his manager by driving a 2-2 pitch over the right-field fence, which sliced the deficit to 5-3. A two-out double by Mike Veit would mark the end of Huertas' afternoon as the Blackbirds moved Griswold from second base to the mound to record the final out of the inning.
 
In the eighth, the Blackbirds turned the game over to their closer Kreiger for a six-out save and the senior right-hander delivered. Kreiger induced a double play in the eighth and limited the Knights to one hit in the ninth – a single by Mercier – as he shut the door for his sixth save of the season.
 
These two teams square off again tomorrow with first pitch in Teaneck set for 12:00 p.m.