Union, N.J.— UMBC baseball suffered a pair of defeats to open their four game set with NJIT on Friday. The Highlanders defeated the Retrievers 3-2 and 7-1.

UMBC falls to 17-24, 12-24 AE on the year while NJIT improves to 22-22, 21-17 AE.

GAME ONE:

The Highlanders jumped out on the Retrievers early taking a 3-0 lead after four innings, holding the Retriever bats to just three hits in those four innings. 

UMBC would break through in the fifth. Luke Belanger (Alexandria, Va.) would single and advance to second on a Drew Roberts (Matthews, N.C.) single. Ian Diaz (Philadelphia, Pa.) would bring Belanger home on a single. Christian Torres (Miami, Fla.) followed suit with an RBI single to plate Roberts and cut the deficit to just one. 

That would be as close as they would get as the Highlanders held on for a 3-2 win. 

Belanger finished with two of the seven UMBC hits with Diaz and Torres driving in runs. 

GAME TWO:

NJIT wasted no time in game two, putting up a run in each of the first two innings to take an early lead. 

After three scoreless innings, the Retrievers got on the board, cutting the deficit to just one. Diaz singled and moved up on a wild pitch. After a stolen base, he would score on an error to make it a 2-1 game. 

However, NJIT would put up four runs in their half of the sixth to pull away to win 7-1. 

Christian Easley (Collinsville, Va.) had a three hit game, as UMBC only mustered five total. 

The Retrievers and Highlanders will conclude their series tomorrow with two games starting at noon.