Ladehoff's Early Offense Pushes NJIT Past Fairfield in Series Rubber Match

The NJIT baseball team jumped out in front early and held off host Fairfield late, winning 8-5 in non-conference action on Sunday at the Alumni Baseball Diamond.

Sunday's victory gave the Highlanders the series win as the team's split a doubleheader on Friday as they got two games in early ahead of Saturday's inclement weather.

NJIT wasted no time getting on the scoreboard on Sunday. Freshman Cade Ladehoff , the team's three-hitter, hit his team-leading seventh home run of the season with one out and a runner on base to put the Highlanders ahead 2-0 early. Classmate AJ Soldra made it 3-0 later in the inning hitting a single to right field to score Michael Doyle.

Fairfield answered with a run in the home half of the first, but NJIT scored twice more in the second to add to its lead. The Highlanders made it 5-1 on back-to-back RBI singles from Doyle and Austin Francis , who were hitting fourth and fifth in the batting order on Sunday.

The Stags kept up with the early offense in the second when they plated two more runs to make the score 5-3 after two innings.

Ladehoff continued his impressive rookie season with another two-RBI extra base hit in the third inning, this time a double down the left field line. The hit made the score 7-3 and gave Ladehoff 28 RBIs this season, which leads the America East.

Fairfield scored a run in each of the fourth and sixth innings to cut the margin to two, but NJIT quickly made it a three-run game again the seventh when Ty Sallie scored on a wild pitch. Sallie led the inning off with a double and advanced to third on a ground ball before scoring on the wild pitch.

Liam Reiner , who earned the save in Friday's game one win, came out of the bullpen with two on and one out in the seventh. The veteran got a strike out and fly out to get out of the jam and preserve the three-run lead.

Reiner worked around a leadoff double to toss a scoreless eighth inning before handing the ball to Talon Mihalinac to pitch the ninth. Milhalinac allowed just one baserunner in a scoreless inning to earn his first-career save. Francis, who played second base on Sunday, caught the final out on a pop up that he chased down into short left-center field.

The Highlanders two through five hitters - Kevin Putsky , Ladehoff, Doyle, and Francis - each finished with a pair of hits in the win.

In addition to his two-hit, four-RBI game at the plate, Ladehoff also threw a runner out trying to steal second base from his catcher position.

The Highlanders return to action on Tuesday when they travel to Rutgers. First pitch is slated for 3 p.m. in Piscataway.