ANNANDALE-ON-HUDSON, New York – The Marist baseball team picked up its fourth straight win in a row with a 9-5 victory vs the New Jersey Institute of Technology Highlands on Tuesday afternoon at Honey Field on the campus of Bard College.

SUMMARY:

For the fourth straight game, the Red Foxes opened the scoring when in the bottom of the first inning, junior Anthony Lazar ripped a leadoff double down the left field line. Senior Andrew Rouse followed with a walk and redshirt senior Greg Kocinski laced an RBI single that scored Lazar for the 1-0 lead. Junior Frankie Gregoire kept the offense rolling with an RBI single to shortstop that scored Rouse and after redshirt junior Jordan Roper was hit by a pitch to load the bases with no outs, redshirt sophomore Tyler Kapuscinski knocked home Kocinski with an RBI sac fly to center. Freshman Reece Armitage followed with an RBI groundout that scored Kocinski and it was 4-0 Marist.

In the bottom of the second, Lazar walked with one out, Rouse was hit by a pitch and Kocinski followed with an RBI single to right that scored Lazar. Gregoire then reached on a fielder's choice that scored Rouse and it was 6-0 Red Foxes.

The Highlanders got on the board in the top of the third with back-to-back walks. After a fielder's choice, an RBI groundout scored the runner from third and following a wild pitch and a walk, a second run scored when the runner stole home to bring the score to 6-2 in favor of the home team.

For a third straight inning, Marist scored in the bottom of the third when Kapuscinski leadoff with a single and then advanced to second on a ground out. Freshman Gene Napolitano followed with an RBI triple to left center and it was 7-2 Red Foxes.

NJIT trimmed the deficit to 7-4 in the top of the fourth with a one out single, followed by an RBI triple to center field. After back-to-back walks, wrapped around a Marist pitching change, a pop out to the second baseman and a hit batsman, a wild pitch scored a run from third and it was 7-4 Red Foxes.

In the bottom of the fifth, Armitage leadoff with a double down the right field line and after a fly out and a Highlander pitching change, Armitage advanced to third on a wild pitch. Sophomore Patrick Lightner followed with an RBI ground out to give Marist the 8-4 lead.

One inning later, Roper reached and advanced to second on a throwing error by the third baseman and then moved to third on a fly out. Two batters later, Napolitano laced an RBI single down the left field line and it was 9-4 Red Foxes.

In the top of the ninth, NJIT added a run with a walk, a wild pitch, another walk, a second wild pitch and after Marist pitching change and back-to-back outs, an RBI single scored the runner. However, that was as close as the Highlanders would come as a ground out ended the inning and secured the 9-5 Marist win.

KEY STATS:

• The Red Foxes outhit NJIT 12-5 on the day
• Eight of the nine Marist starters picked up at least one hit in the game
• Three Red Foxes had multiple RBIs on the day

GAME NOTES:

• Freshman Nick Cantone made his first career appearance on the mound and picked up his first career win, throwing two and one third innings while giving up no runs on no hits with one strikeout
• Lazar extended his hitting streak to five games, picked up his fifth straight multi-hit game, recorded his fifth straight game with at least one double and picked up his first multi-run scored game of the season.
• Rouse extended his hitting streak to six games and recorded his second multi-run scored game of the year
• Kocinski's three hits marked his fifth multi-hit game of the year and his two RBIs tied a season high
• Gregoire extended his hitting streak, RBI streak and run scored streak to four games and picked up his third multi-RBI game of the year with two runs knocked in
• Roper extended his hit streak to three game and his run scored streak to five games
• In his first start this season, Kapuscinski picked up his first hit, run scored and RBI of the year
• Armitage recorded the second game of his career with at least one hit, one run scored and one RBI
• Napolitano recorded his first career multi-hit and multi-RBI game of his career
• Lightner picked up his first RBI of the season

QUOTE:

"It was nice to get the first midweek win of the year" said head coach Chris Tracz. "I thought offensively we did some good things and were very productive with runners in scoring position. On the mound, we battled but did give them too many counts in their favor that led to too many free bases but we competed well."

UP NEXT:

Marist opens Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference play this weekend, when they host the Monmouth Hawks in a doubleheader on Saturday (Noon) and a single game on Sunday (Noon) at McCann Field.