The Stetson Hatters played their most complete game of the season on Friday night in take a 4-3 victory over visiting NJIT at Melching Field in the 2019 ASUN home opener.
 
The Hatters ran their regular season home ASUN win streak to 11 games and improved to 3-1 in league play this year with the victory. Stetson is now 13-16 overall on the season. NJIT fell to 12-14-1 overall and 2-5 in the ASUN.
 
Sophomore Kyle Ball delivered a two-out hit in the eighth inning to score Andrew MacNeil from second with the winning run. It was the third hit of the game for Ball and the second RBI. He also singled home Mark Townsend in the second inning. It was Ball's third three-hit game of the year.
 
Junior Jorge Arenas also continued his run of hot-hitting, delivering three hits of his own, including a solo home run in the fifth to give Stetson a 2-1 lead and an RBI single in the seventh inning to tie the game at 3-3. Arenas has now hit safely in 11 of the last 13 games, driving in nine runs and raising his batting average to a team-high .319.
 
The production of Ball and Arenas came in support of Stetson starting pitcher Chris Gonzalez and reliever Danny Garcia (3-0). Gonzalez had another strong outing, working 6.1 innings while allowing three runs on eight hits with one walk and five strikeouts.
 
The only mistakes for Gonzalez came in the first and sixth innings. NJIT's David Marcano hit a solo homer in the first and Matt Cocciadiferro followed an infield hit by Julio Marcano with a two-run homer in the sixth.
 
Garcia came on with a runner on and one out in the seventh and retired eight straight, with the help of a double play, to close out the Stetson win.
 
NJIT reliever Joe Georgini (1-2) took the loss in relief of Highlanders' starter Jared Kacso. The duo failed to record a single strikeout in the game, marking the first time since April 12, 2011, against USF that the Hatters did not strikeout in a contest.
 
Stetson senior Jacob Koos, who played in his 196^th game for the Hatters, started for the first time in his career at second base, handling six chances flawlessly as the Hatters played errorless baseball for just the fifth time this year. Koos also extended his hit-streak to eight games, picking up career hit number 198 with a bunt single in the seventh inning.
 
The Hatters will go out in search of their second straight ASUN series win on Saturday night when they square off against the Highlanders again. First pitch is scheduled for 6:30 p.m.
 
About Stetson University Athletics: Stetson University's Athletics Program has a vision of developing a culture of champions athletically, academically and within the community. This vision is accomplished through a mission of recruiting and developing student-athletes, coaches and staff, creating a culture of champions, within and outside of competition. The department operates with five core values: Championship Culture, Integrity, Excellence, Pride/Tradition and Leadership. To learn more about the Vision, Mission and Core Values for Stetson Athletics, visit GoHatters.com and click on Mission Statement under the Inside Athletics tab.