TEANECK, NJ - Junior 3B Nick Rossetti posted a career best four hits, rookies SS Eric Capowski and CF Dean Dignelli each had three hits and senior C Andrew Wernicki drove in five runs but it was not enough for the Iona College baseball team to overcome Fairleigh Dickinson in a 20-17 defeat at FDU Field.

The Gaels slugged four home runs and posted 18 hits in the loss.  Each of the squad's nine starters recorded a hit and all but one scored a run in the contest.

Wernicki and rookie 2B Chris Burke each blasted grand slam home runs.  Dignelli blasted one to right center that drove in three runs.

Rossetti went 4-for-5 with a walk, four runs scored and an RBI.  He doubled and hit his first collegiate home run in the top of the seventh inning.  Wernicki went 2-for-6 with a career-best five RBI.  Burke and Dignelli had multiple hits and drove in four a piece.  It was also Burke's first collegiate home run in the loss.

After tying the score at 14-14 in the top of the seventh inning on Burke and Rossetti's back-to-back home runs, the Knights scored six in the bottom of the seventh and eighth innings.   The Gaels halved their deficit in the top of the ninth when Dignelli homered.

Fourteen different pitchers appeared in the game for both teams.  Of the Gaels seven, rookie RHP Jordan Gilruth was the most effective, throwing 3.1 innings allowing five hits and one run in middle relief.

The Gaels return to action this weekend in their 2009 MAAC opener at Marist.   The three-game series begins with a doubleheader on Satuday (Mar. 21).