HACKENSACK, N.J. - FDU baseball (4-14, 3-10 NEC) won the first game of the series against Mount St. Mary's (5-21, 1-12 NEC) 10-4 on Friday afternoon. 

How it Happened

1st Inning-

• Mount St. Mary's opened the scoring with a double that drove in the leadoff single
• FDU responded with three runs in the bottom half of the inning
• Freshman Hunter D'Amato delivered the first RBI on a first-pitch single driving in graduate student Mike Veit
• Junior Tom Ruscitti then smashed his fourth home run of the season to right-center field

2nd Inning-

• The Mount took the lead with a two-out rally bringing four across the plate

3rd Inning-

• FDU generated their own two-out rally that began with a Ruscitti walk and senior James Donlon doubled tying the game at four apiece

4th Inning-

• The Knights took the lead and capitalized on fielding miscues by the Mountaineers
• With runners on second and third, Mike Veit grounded to third base, but the fielder stumbled and was unable to tag freshman Blaise Rantanen allowing senior Brad Levinson to score and give the Knights the lead

8th Inning-

• FDU broke the game open with timely hitting by freshman Tommy Verga who drove in two runs expanding the lead to 7-4
• Freshman TJ Werner and Veit also singaled in the inning helping drive in three more runs

Quote from Head Coach Rob DiToma

"I'm very happy with the way the guys came out and responded today. We expected the game to be tight and a back and forth affair. We showed resilience and fight and look to do the same the rest of the weekend."

Inside the Box Score

• Junior Joey Kosowsky picked up the win (3-1) going 7 innings and striking out 11 batters
• Veit and Levinson both had three hits each on the afternoon. Veit now has 7 hits in his last 12 at-bats with 5 RBI
• Ruscitti had his third multi-hit game in a row and has 6 hits in his last 11 at-bats and 6 RBI

Next Up

FDU is back on Saturday, April 17, to take on Mount St. Mary's in game two at 1 p.m. live on NEC Front Row.