TEANECK, N.J. – In a game which featured four ties, the Fairleigh Dickinson baseball team scored the final three runs to defeat Lehigh 7-4 at Naimoli Family Baseball Complex on Tuesday afternoon.
The Knights (4-8), who are now 3-0 at home this season, plated three runs on three doubles in the bottom of the eighth inning to secure the victory.
Sophomore catcher
Kyle Huber knocked in a pair including the go-ahead run in the eighth and finished 2-for-4 in the win, while classmate
Tom Ruscitti also went 2-for-4 and scored twice.
Second-year right-hander
Joey Kosowsky started for the Burgundy and Blue and struck out eight and allowed two runs across his four innings of work before
Charlie Perkins came on in relief and surrendered a run over two frames. Sophomore
Brendan Medoro (1-1) closed out the game and earned the win by pitching the final three innings.
Second baseman
Nate Brodsky opened the scoring by lacing the first pitch he saw into the right-center field gap, which chased home
Mike Veit. After he advanced to third on a wild pitch, Brodsky was stranded at third as Lehigh starter Cam Van Hoorebeke retired the next two Knights and escaped the jam. Van Hoorebeke pitched six innings, allowing three runs (one earned) with seven strikeouts in a no decision.
Trailing 2-1 in the third, the Knights reclaimed the lead with some aggressive baserunning. With Brodsky on third, Ruscitti swiped second base and an errant throw behind Brodsky sailed into left field allowing the Knights to tie the game. Huber knocked in Ruscitti with an opposite-field single to put the Burgundy and Blue in front 3-2.
After the Mountain Hawks (5-10) tied the game in the top of the sixth, they committed a throwing error in the bottom of the seventh, which allowed freshman shortstop
Jake Ellowitz to score.
The visitors would again knot the game in the top of the eighth when Tony Gallo launched a solo home run over the left field fence but the Knights remained undeterred and answered right back in the home half of the inning.
Ruscitti kickstarted the rally with a line drive, which caromed off of Lehigh's pitcher for an infield single. Huber was next and he ripped an RBI double down the left field line. Junior outfielder
Tony Socci followed with a double of his own – an opposite-field slice which snuck between the Lehigh first baseman and the bag and extended the Knights' lead to two.
Two batters later, Ellowitz concluded the scoring with the team's third double of the frame, a long drive into the left-center field gap, which plated Socci and concluded the scoring.
Despite allowing the first two Mountain Hawks to reach in the ninth, Medoro settled down and retired the next three batters to secure the win.
The Knights are back in action tomorrow when they travel to South Orange to face Seton Hall at 4:00 p.m.
Paul Miller Auto Group is the presenting sponsor of the 2020 FDU baseball season.
