The New Jersey Institute of Technology scored two runs in the bottom of the ninth inning on Friday afternoon, walking off on the Maine Black Bears 2-1 at Joe Nathan Field in Stony Brook, NY in a winners bracket game of the America East Baseball Tournament.
The game was scoreless all the way until the eighth inning, but both teams had opportunities over the first seven. Maine had Jake Rainess in scoring position in the top of the third inning with one out. Quinn McDaniel then flied out to center, and Rainess tried to tag up and take third but was thrown out by NJIT center fielder Albert Choi. The Highlanders turned a double play in the fourth on a ball hit by Sean Lawlor to thwart another opportunity. Both clubs had two runners on base with one out in the fifth, with nothing to show for it. The Highlanders tried a squeeze play to try and score a run, but Maine starter Alex McKenney got to it and flipped to catcher Ryan Turrene for the tag play at home. The 0-0 stalemate was finally broken with one out in the top of the eighth. Connor Goodman and Turrene both singled, and then Lawlor did the same grounding one into center for an RBI to make it 1-0 Maine. NJIT got out of it when reliever Jake Rappaport struck out Scout Knotts, then worked around a Joe Bramanti single and retired Jake Marquez on a pop up. McKenney would end up going the distance for the Black Bears. Julio Marcano led off the bottom of the ninth with an infield single, and then David Marcano hit one to third that was misplayed by Maines Goodman for an error and went down the line in left to put runners on second and third. McKenney then intentionally walked pinch hitter Andrew Eppinger to load the bases. Daniel Helfgott lined out to center to score J. Marcano to even the score 1-1. Luke Longo won it in walk-off fashion with a deep drive to the fence in right over the head of Colin Plante to end it.
McKenney (4-6) was the tough luck loser on the hill for Maine allowing two runs (none earned) on six hits with one walk and four strikeouts in 8.1 innings. He threw 107 pitches (68 for strikes). Turrene had three hits and Bramanti had two, as the Bears drop to 22-21 and face Stony Brook again on Saturday in what will be an elimination game. Rappaport (8-2) got the win in relief of starter Ryan Fisher for NJIT, who had allowed one run on nine hits in 7.1 innings. The Highlanders (26-22) have now won nine games in a row, and will face the winner of Stony Brook and Maine in the Championship Round. NJIT needs to win one game out of a possible two to claim the 2021 America East Championship.
BOX SCORE
UME (22-21) 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 1 0- 1 10 2
NJT (26-22) 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 2- 2 6 1
Winning pitcher- Jake Rappaport (8-2)
Losing pitcher- Alex McKenney (4-6)
Left on base- Maine 9, NJIT 4
