TEANECK, N.J. – The FDU Knights hosted the Lehigh Mountain Hawks in a non-conference midweek matchup on Wednesday afternoon. The two teams were scheduled to play a home and home two day series starting yesterday but poor weather postponed yesterday's game to a later date. However, we still got a battle at Naimoli where the Knights outlasted the Mountain Hawks 4-3.
 

how it happened

 
The low scoring affair kicked off with the Knights scoring two runs in the 2^nd inning behind a Nicholas Mazzotta triple and a TJ Werner double. The scored stayed 2-0 through six frames; FDU starter, Jude Baxt, gave the team their best pitching performance of the season so far with six scoreless innings, four strikeouts, and only three hits allowed.
 
Five of the game's seven runs came in the 7^th inning with Lehigh driving in three and FDU two. The top of the 7^th saw the Knights struggle on the mound and in the field when Jake Simon relieved Baxt. Simon pitched 2/3's of an inning allowing three unearned runs and two walks, he left the bases loaded with two outs for Evan Stewart to hold on to the Knights 2-0 lead. Stewart issued a pop-up that was dropped in the infield and allowed two runners to score before allowing an infield single that gave the Mountain Hawks a 3-2 lead.
 
The Knights responded quickly to losing the lead when they came up to bat in the bottom of the 7^th. Mazzotta opened the inning with his second hit of the day driving a ball into the right-center gap for a leadoff double. Soon after George Rosales was drilled by a pitch and stole second base to give FDU runners on second and third with two outs. Team RBI leader Tom Ruscitti smashed a double down the right field line to retake the lead for the Knights.
 
The Knights had a 4-3 lead with six outs to go and needed someone to close the game out. Patrick Gardner came out of the bullpen and pitched two scoreless innings and struck out four batters on the way to picking up his first career Division I save. FDU advanced to 8-6-1 on the season.
 
Manny Roman's squad will be back in action this weekend when they host the Wagner College Seahawks for a three-game weekend conference set. The Seahawks will enter the series 8-7 on the year and 3-0 in conference play. Friday's matchup will be at 3 p.m. with Saturday and Sunday both happening at 1 p.m. All games will be streamed on NEC Front Row.