This past weekend the Bison baseball team traveled to Cary, N.C. to compete against the New Jersey Institute of Technology (NJIT). The games were originally scheduled to be played in Lewisburg, but inclement weather moved the contest to North Carolina. The Bison had already competed in one contest against NJIT, a close game that they lost 8-5 on Feb. 16.

On Saturday, Feb, 29, the Bison played a doubleheader against the Highlanders and were able to capture a win in the first of the two games. An offensive explosion in both the fifth and sixth innings for the Bison gave them 7-2 lead going into the seventh inning.

In the seventh inning, the Bison got some much-needed insurance runs with Tyler Wincig ’20’s three-run home run that brought in Kyle Lyons ’23 and Brendan Lowery ’22. The home run would prove necessary, as the Highlanders would hit a small surge in the eighth inning, scoring four runs before not getting any at the top of the ninth.

Peter Marren ’21, Wincig, Chris Cannizzaro ’22 and JohnPaul Bell ’20 all had multiple hit, multiple-RBI games in this contest. Marren improves on his already productive season, adding another multiple-hit game. On the mound, Nate Grisius ’20 got the win, his second of the year. Will Greer ’23 also faced two batters in the 8th inning.

The Bison had a tough rest of the weekend against the Highlanders and were not able to capture any more wins against NJIT.

In the second game of their Saturday doubleheader, the Bison were not able to handle the offensive explosion of the Highlanders. The Bison led 1-0 after Evan Madigan ’20 stole home, but the Highlanders gained control with three runs in the second and four runs in the third. From there the Bison were not able to catch up and lost 14-2 in the second game of the doubleheader.

Finally, on Sunday the Bison had a strong offensive performance, bringing in 14 runs and producing 15 hits. Unfortunately, the offense of NJIT was too strong for the Bison and NJIT claimed this victory with a final score of 23-14.

“We learned that we still have a lot of improvement to make with our pitching and defense. The offense was able to get going some this weekend with double-digit runs in games one and three, but a lot of work still has to be done. Hopefully we can make improvements this week leading into spring break.” Marren said.

The team next travels to Florida for a group of games that will go throughout spring break. Their next games will be against Villanova in a three-game stretch that goes from Friday to Sunday.