AUGUSTA, N.J. - No. 2 FDU Baseball topped No. 3 Wagner in the opening round of the NEC Touranment by a final score of 7-5 at Skylands Stadium in Augusta, N.J. Thursday evening. The Knights used key plays from
Jeremy Cheeseman,
Travis Stroh, and
Hunter Ray to get past the Seahawks to advance into the winner's bracket of the conference tournament.
The Knights did not take long to make a stellar play in the ballgame, as
Travis Stroh climbed the center field wall and took back a home run, making a highlight reel play in center field, taking a two run home run away from Wagner in the opening frame.
FDU got on the board first in the ballgame as
Jeremy Delamota got the Knights on the board against his old team with an RBI double, scoring
Garryn Plummer to make the score 1-0 FDU. The Knights tacked on another run in the second frame as
Caleb Walker continued his hot streak as he singled home Delamota to make it 2-0 FDU after the first two innings of play.
The Knights got another run in the third inning as
Hunter Ray launched his 29th home run of the season, which was a 460 home run, launched into the trees at Skylands Stadium.
Wagner then responded to score the next three runs of the ballgame, tieing the game against FDU starter
Cooper Montelbano, who worked his longest outing of his 2026 campaign. The game would stay tied until the bottom of the seventh as
Chris Messina grabbed two zeros for FDU.
FDU cracked the tie in the bottom in the seventh as
Luke Russo scored on a wild pitch.
Jeremy Cheeseman followed up that act with a broken bat two run single that extended the FDU lead to three runs.
Jeremy Delamota then came through for the Knights once again, as he hit home Cheeseman with a sacrifice fly, as FDU took a four run lead into the eighth inning.
The Seahawks got a pair of runs in the eighth on a two run home run, but the Knights brought in closer
Nick Noble, and Noble shut the door on the Seahawks going 1.2 innings striking out three batters to get FDU over the finish line, taking the opening game of the NEC tournament by a final score of 7-5.
FDU moved into the winner's bracket of the NEC tournament and will face No.1 LIU for the right to advance to the NEC Championship Game. Action from Skylands Stadium is set to start 4 p.m. ET, and the game will be streamed on ESPN+.
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