Montclair, NJ - Junior righthander DONALD CUSICK tossed eight solid innings while sophomore second baseman JOE FOOTE had two hits and a run batted in as Montclair State knocked off New Jersey City University, 8-1 at Yogi Berra Stadium on Thursday.

The Red Hawks took the first game of the home-and-home set with the two meeting again on Friday, April 22 in Jersey City at 3:30 pm.

RYAN LONG, MATT LONG, KEITH MURPHY and JUSTIN EPIFANIO all had an RBI helping MSU back to the .500 mark at 15-15 overall, 6-5 in the NJAC. Dimitri Rueger went 2-for-3 with a run scored for the Gothic Knights (14-16, 0-11 NJAC).

Cusick upped his record to 2-1 on the year as he tossed eight or more innings for the third consecutive start. The righthander allowed five hits and a run in the first inning. Cusick struck out four and did not walk a batter. Kyle Kaffer (2-3) took the loss for NJCU.

Three of the five hits allowed by Cusick came in the top of the first when the Gothic Knights scored their only run. Rueger led off with a single and went to third on an errant pickoff throw. After a groundout, Nick Ruscingno  singled through the right side bringing home Rueger with the game's first run. Andrew Niech kept the inning going however Cusick escaped further damage inducing a pair of ground outs.

Montclair would quickly get that run back and one more in its half of the inning. MATT LONG reached on a two-base error with one out and scored as Foote singled knotting the game at 1-1. Foote would go to third on a wild pitch and third on a base hit from PHILIP SCOTT before coming home on a sacrifice fly by KEITH MURPHY for a 2-1 MSU lead.

The Red Hawks added two more in the second. RYAN LONG singled in Dan Lampasona and an error allowing Epifanio to score increasing the MSU lead to 4-1. Foote reached again to lead off the fourth and later scored on the third of five NJCU errors in the game for a four-run cushion.

MATT LONG had an RBI single in the sixth to make the score 6-1 and he later scored on a wild pitch for the seventh run. Epifanio plated the final run in the seventh with a run-scoring single that scored KEVIN ALONSO, who led off the inning with a double.

Alonso finished 2-for-4 at the plate for MSU. JOSH FELIX pitched a scoreless ninth inning.