LITTLE FALLS, N.J. - FDU Baseball (26-15-1, 19-5 NEC) played in a marathon game with the NJIT Highlanders (14-24-1, 5-13 America East) as the contest lasted five hours and 39 minutes, with the game ending in a tie with rain coming down on soaked Yogi Berra Field, before the beginning of the 16th inning.
FDU started the game out hot, as the Knights grabbed a run in both of the first two innings of the ballgame on sacrifice flies, as
Luke Russo scored
Johnathan Gomez, and
Travis Stroh scored
Caleb Walker. The Knights would extend their lead in the fourth inning, as they continued to get zeros on the mound from starter Joesph Barbarino.
Jeremy Delamota doubled home
Diego Urreta, then two batters later,
Travis Stroh would single in Delamota. The Knights would execute a first and third play to tack on one more run, and FDU would take a 5-0 lead into the bottom of the fourth, where they got another scoreless frame from Barbarino.
Travis Stroh would collect another RBI in the sixth inning with another RBI single, this time hitting home
Diego Urreta, and the Knights extended their lead to a healthy margin of six. The Highlanders would storm back though, scoring four runs in both the sixth and seventh innings, then following it up with three in the eighth to take a three run lead into the top of the ninth.
FDU was down to their last out with
Johnathan Gomez at the plate, with two runners on. Gomez got on top of a 0-1 sweeper and sent the ball over the Yogi Berra Stadium scoreboard, as the Knights once again tied the game in come from behind, dramatic fashion. The Knights were in dire need of a scoreless inning, and were able to get a shutout frame from
Evan Doyle to send the game into the tenth inning, with the score level at 11.
The teams would trade scoreless inning for scoreless inning as the game went on for six additional extra innings, with neither team able to scratch across a run, despite 21 total base runners being left on the base paths during extra innings. The Knights received huge late shutdown outings from relievers
Evan Doyle,
Jay Creighton, and
Neylin Navarro, as all of those pitchers shut down the Highlanders when the Knights were in need of zeros to keep the game going.
Wednesday's draw marks the first for FDU since 2023, where the Knights worked a 12-12 tie with Albany, as darkness fell upon Naimoli Family Baseball Complex and the game was called due to darkness on March 5th, 2023. The 15 inning ballgame is the longest for any FDU team since exactly four years ago to the day, where the Knights fell to CCSU in 13 innings at Naimoli Family Baseball Complex.
FDU will host the defending NEC champion CCSU at Naimoli Family Baseball Complex for a three game series this weekend in Teaneck. First pitch is set for 3 p.m. on Friday afternoon, and the game will be streamed on NEC Front Row and live stats will be availble on fduknights.com.
