LITTLE FALLS, N.J. – The FDU Knights (10-31, 10-11 NEC) dropped a hard-fought midweek contest to NJIT (20-21, 8-7 America East) by a score of 7-6 on Wednesday afternoon.
The Knights went with a bullpen-heavy approach, beginning with a one-inning start from Jordan, who tossed 14 pitches and escaped the first inning unscathed despite allowing two hits. Relievers Joe Barbarino,
James Vlastaris,
Logan Magdits,
Ben Pika, and
Ian Barrett all saw action out of the bullpen. Barrett led the staff with three strikeouts, Pika added two, and Barbarino contributed one, combining for six total strikeouts on the day.
FDU jumped out to an early lead, scoring three runs in the bottom of the first inning.
Johnathan Gomez opened the scoring with an RBI single, followed by sacrifice flies from
Jeremy Cheeseman and
Jimmy Mantuano to give the Knights a 3-0 edge. They added another run in the second on
Diego Urreta's RBI single to stretch the lead to 4-0.
NJIT responded with a six-run outburst in the top of the fourth, fueled by a bases-loaded walk, two RBI singles, and a two-run double that flipped the game in favor of the Highlanders, 6-4.
Franklin Gomez Jr. brought FDU within one in the fifth with an RBI double to right field, but NJIT quickly answered with a run of its own on a single up the middle to make it 7-5.
The Knights plated one more run on a balk in the seventh inning to cut the deficit to 7-6 but were unable to complete the comeback.
UP NEXT
FDU will hit the road for a Northeast Conference series at Maryland Eastern Shore. Game one is scheduled for Friday, May 2 at 3 p.m.
Connect with the FDU Baseball team on Twitter
@FDUKnightsBASE and Instagram
@FDUKnightsBASE
Pub178 is the presenting sponsor for the 2025 FDU Baseball season.
