A night after enduring a heartbreaking loss to the Rockland Boulders, the Jackals couldn't garner enough momentum to derail the slumping Sussex County Miners, as Sussex held off the Jackals 5-4 on Friday night in Augusta, New Jersey. 

The Jackalsl led only once and managed only six hits agianst Sussex County starter Francisco Rodriguez, who allowed an earned run over seven innings of work against New Jersey. 

The back and forth affair that saw four lead changes opened in the bottom of the first inning with the Miners grabbing a 2-0 lead on a Steve Nyisztor double to left. New Jersey quickly responded an innning later. With Taylor Brennan aboard on a single to left, Cory Vaughn crushed a Rodriguez fastball over the left field wall into the woods for a two-run home run, tying the game at two. The homer was Vaughn's fourth of the season. 

The Miners got the lead back quickly though. In the bottom half of the second, Dominique Taylor's two out single was followed by a RBI single to left by rookie Chris Chiaradio that made it 3-2, Sussex County. 

The score would remain 3-2 until the top of the fifh when New Jersey finally got something going agianst Rodriguez. A lead-off single by Adam Martin was followed by a one-out walk to Rylan Sandoval. Two batters later, Mike Schwartz lined a base hit to right field that Brenden Webb bobbled, allowing the tying and go-ahead runs to score for New Jersey. 

Then things got really wild for the Jackals. With former Jackal, Nick Giarraputo on first base with one out in the bottom of the fifth, Jay Austin lined a pitch over the outstretched glove of Art Charles at first. Charles thought the ball was foul, but first base umpire Matt Beaver called it fair. Giarraputo came all the way around from first to score the tying run, while Austin legged out a triple. Two batters later, Nyisztor lined a pitch right off the body of Ernst, who tired his best to throw out Nyisztor, but couldn't do it because of the injury. Austin scored on the play to give the Miners a 5-4 lead. 

Apparently, the line drive by Nyisztor hit Ernst right on the hand as he was trying to protect his midsection. Ernst was removed from the game for Nick Gonzalez who tossed an inning and two-thirds of shutout baseball. Ernst's status wasn't immediately known at the end of the game. 

Meanwhile the Jackals struggled against Rodriguez and the combination of Jimmer Kennedy and Jesse Beal for the duration. Only three base runners reached for New Jersey in the final four innings of the game, with the Jackals getting no hits down the stretch. Beal got the save for the Miners, his second since joining the ball club. 

With the loss the Jackals fall into a second place tie with the Rockland Boulders at 32-21. The Jackals send Lee Sosa to the hill on Saturday night. He will face ex-Marlins prospect Ivan Pineyro; first pitch is at 7:05 p.m. The game can be heard on the Jackals Radio Network.