UNION, NJ - The NJIT baseball team completed Saturday's halted game with an 11-3 victory to take the three-game America East series over UMBC, before falling 11-6 in the finale on Sunday at Jim Hynes Stadium.

NJIT is now 16-14 on the season and 10-5 at the midway point of America East Conference play, while UMBC's record now stands at 15-20 overall and 6-9 in conference action.

Game 1 | NJIT 11, UMBC 3
Jake Rappaport earned his first mound victory of the season, allowing just one run over an efficent five innings, needing just 47 pitches, as NJIT rolled to a decisive series-clinching win in a game that began Saturday night and was finished on Sunday afternoon. 

Rappaport allowed the run in the second inning, but the Highlanders answered with the next 11 runs to take an 11-1 lead as the game was halted due to rain after five innings.

The teams returned to the field Sunday for the final four innings and UMBC was only able to close the gap to 11-3 to give the Highlanders their 10th-straight win over the Retrievers dating back to last season. 

NJIT tallied 15 hits in the win, including seven extra base hits. Paul Franzoni hit his fifth home run of the season and knocked in three runs, while David Marcano finished with three hits to extend his hitting streak to 20 games. Five other Highlanders had multi-hit games, including Ray Ortiz, who also knocked in three runs. 

Game 2 | UMBC 11. NJIT 6
UMBC opened the scoring with a pair of runs in the first. The damage could've been worse, but Franzoni connected with catcher Luke Longo to throw out a runner at home plate.

Ortiz got NJIT on the scoreboard in the second with a solo shot, his second home run of the season, and the Highlanders tied the game an inning later when Franzoni knocked in Julio Marcano.

The Retreivers scored five times in the seventh to take a comfortable advantage, but NJIT rallied to make it 8-6 and had the tying runner on second base. The Highlanders couldn't capitalize, however, and UMBC added three more runs to end their 10-game losing skid to NJIT. 

The Highlanders were led offensively by Franzoni, who had three hits, including his team-best sixth home run of the season, and reached base five times. Albert Choi and Julio Marcano both had a pair of hits in the loss. David Marcano saw his 20-game hitting streak come to an end on Sunday. It was the longest hitting streak by a Highlander since Kwesi Mitchell hit safely in 22-consecutive games in 2007.

Aidan Kidd started for NJIT and allowed two runs in 2.2 innings of work as he is working his way back from injury. Evan Gegeckas took over for Kidd and dominated for his first 3.1 innings of work, before finding trouble in the seventh. Seven of the 11 outs recorded by Gegeckas were via strikeout.

UP NEXT: The Highlanders will return to the diamond on Wednesday when they head down the Garden State Parkway to take on Monmouth. First pitch is slated for 3:00pm in West Long Branch, NJ.