Newark, NJ – After pounding out 20 hits in a Friday night win over NJIT, the Stetson Hatters let their pitching staff do the heavy lifting on Saturday, holding the host Highlanders to just two hits in a 3-1 series clinching win at Riverfront Stadium.

The win for Stetson evens the Hatters' season and Atlantic Sun Conference records. Stetson is now 23-23 overall and 7-7 in league play. NJIT fell to 17-28 overall and 2-11 in the Highlanders' first season in the league.

The Hatters will try to complete a weekend sweep in Sunday. The first pitch of the series finale has been pushed back to a 1 p.m. start.

Despite the strong pitching performance in the game, things did not start off very well for Stetson junior Mitchell Jordan (4-5). He struggled with his control in the first inning, allowing a walk and hitting a batter. A double by Stephen Halibej put NJIT on the board, but Jordan closed the inning with consecutive strikeouts to begin a string of 14 consecutive hitters retired.

“He didn't have command of the zone in the first inning and walked the leadoff hitter,” Hatters coach Pete Dunn said. “As usually happens, that runner came around to score, but he settled down and he and the bull pen shut them down the rest of the way. He really settled down after that first inning and pitched well.”

Jordan put the Highlanders down in order in the second, third, fourth and fifth innings before allowing a leadoff single to Evan Pietronico in the sixth. After getting an out on a sacrifice bunt, he walked Halibej before giving way to Tyler Keller.

Keller needed just four pitches to get Tom Brady to ground into an inning-ending double play. Logan Gilbert and Walker Sheller closed the game with three perfect innings to preserve the victory.

“We felt that Gilbert's velocity would give them trouble, and it did,” Dunn said. “He went out there and filled up the zone and then Walker came on in the ninth and got the save. The bullpen did a great job.”

Gilbert struck out four in his two innings and the save for Sheller was his ninth of the year.

Offensively, the Hatters put at least one runner on base in every inning except the ninth. Matt Morales got things started in the first inning with a one-out double off NJIT starter Ian Bentley (4-4) then came in to score on a two-out single by Kirk Sidwell.

It was the fifth inning before the Hatters were able to get another run on the board when Cory Reid delivered a two-out single to score Vance Vizcaino from third. The final run for Stetson came in the eighth inning after Sidwell led off with a double. Jacob Koos pinch-ran, moved up on a bloop single by John Fussell and scored on a sacrifice fly by Austin Hale.

“It was one of those grind-it-out wins,” Dunn said. “Their guy Bentley, threw pretty good. We haven't worn left-handers out this year, but I thought we did a pretty good job against him. We did what we had to do to score and we pitched and played defense to make it hold up.

“It was one of those games where pitching and defense and some opportune hitting got the job done.”

Sidwell and Fussell led the Hatters with two hits each in the game. Three of the Stetson hits in the game were doubles, after having had six two-base hits in the series opener on Friday.

Now riding a three-game win streak, the Hatters will try to keep their momentum going to close this road trip with an eye toward another important road series next weekend at league-leading Kennesaw State.

“We keep talking about building momentum for the rest of the year and into the post-season and we have to start somewhere,” Dunn said. “We got the last game against JU and these first two, but we have to keep winning.

“Not only do we need to get the game tomorrow, but we have another game up here on Monday against Monmouth. These games mean a lot for our overall record, but we go to the league leader next weekend and every game is so important to keep the momentum going into the post-season.”