CARTERET, NJ- It may have been a home game according to the books, but the Patriots stilled needed to travel over an hour to get to their first "home game" against Houghton College, Saturday, March 16.  Playing just their second and third game of the season, the men still had a lot of dust to shake off and dropped both games, 0-25 and 2-12.

The Patriots were able to keep the Highlanders under control for the first two innings, allowing just three runs before heading into the third.   Then the flood gates opened.  Amid a mix of fielding errors and home runs, the Highlanders plowed over the Patriots, earning 10 runs in the fourth and 12 in the fifth inning.  Offensively, the bats just wouldn't connect for the Patriots.  It was either a strikeout or straight to a fielder, taking away any chance for the men to grain traction. 

By game two, the Patriots changed up their pitching, putting freshman Demitrius Muse on the mound.  Leaving game one in the past, the men started to show some strength, getting on the scoreboard in the first inning with two runs from Josh Strohm and James Comenzo off of a solid single base hit from Jared Boothman up the right field side! Despite it being the only runs of the game for the Patriots, the men continued to battle against the Highlander's powerful hits.  Despite a few muffed catches, the Patriots cut their run loss in half from game one. 

Demitrius Muse recorded seven strikeouts for game two, while Jared Boothman grabbed two RBI's.

The Patriots return to the road for a single game match-up against Penn State Brandywine.  The game is set for Tuesday, March 18, with a start time of 3:30pm

Go Patriots!