NEWARK, NJ—Lehigh used back-to-back two-out doubles to score the game-winning run in a 2-1 10-inning victory over NJIT in the Highlanders' 2009 home opener Wednesday afternoon at Bears and Eagles Riverfront Stadium.

The Mountain Hawks, who had plated an unearned run in the top of the sixth inning, got the game-winner when 2B Patrick Groome doubled to left center field and then came around on LF Andy Russell's hard-hit ground ball that skirted inside the first base bag and down the right field line.

Groome, who scored Lehigh's first run and drove home the winning run, was the only player in the pitcher-dominated game to get more than one hit. He was 2-for-5.

NJIT got its four hits from four different men--Giorbis Bermudez, Dan Moreno, John Berner, and Vincent Del Vecchio. Moreno's double in the sixth inning was the only extra-base hit for the Highlanders.

Lehigh used three pitchers while NJIT used two and all five hurlers were impressive.

Freshman RHP Cory Kent, the third Lehigh pitcher, raised his won-lost record to 3-1 by holding the Highlanders in check over the final 2.2 innings.

The hard-luck loser for NJIT was freshman RHP Dan Moreno, who allowed the one run on three hits in three full innings. The loss was Moreno's first college decision.

The starting pitchers produced remarkably similar lines. The NJIT starter, senior LHP Matt Melody, pitched seven strong innings, allowing just four hits and the lone unearned run with six strikeouts and two walks.

Lehigh's junior starting RHP Ken Longernecker struck out five of the first six men he faced and finished with six strikeouts in six innings, allowing four hits and an earned run. He was relieved by sophomore RHP Luke Porter, who did not allowed a run or a hit in 1.1 innings, while walking a pair.

Both starting pitchers were dominant through the first three innings, as the only hit for either team to that point was a leadoff single by Lehigh's Michael Laychur to open the third.

The Mountain Hawks nearly scored first, but their bid was thwarted when NJIT's Bermudez made a perfect throw from left field home to nab Lehigh's Russell, who was trying to score from second on a one-out single by 1B Kevin Mihalik.

That big play cleared the way for the Highlanders to jump on top in the bottom of the fourth. CF Craig Binkiewicz was hit by a pitch leading off and Bermudez followed, beating out a perfectly placed sac bunt try for a single to give the Highlanders runners on first and second with no one out.

1B PJ Saporito moved up both runners with a sacrifice bunt before Moreno was hit by a pitch to load the bases. Lehigh's Longernecker nearly escaped when he induced a fielder's choice force out at home, but he walked NJIT's Berner, forcing home what would be the Highlanders' only run of the day.

Melody set down Lehigh 1-2-3 in the top of the fifth before Del Vecchio singled with one out in the bottom of the inning. The NJIT freshman later arrived at third base, where he was stranded when Bermudez made the final out on a scorching line drive that Lehigh's third baseman, Brendan Pifer, caught at the top of a well-timed leap.

Pifer's play loomed even bigger when his team generated the tying run in the next half-inning. RF Mark Bernhard reached on an error leading off the top of the sixth and went to second on a sacrifice. Groome then singled to center field, bringing home Bernhard to make it 1-1.

The Highlanders tried to answer in the bottom of the sixth, as Moreno, who started the game as the designated hitter, drove NJIT's hardest-hit ball of the day to right center field for a one-out double. After another out, Berner singled to center field, but Moreno, who was no more than a step past the third base bag when the Berner's hit was fielded, had to hold at third base. Given that reprieve, Longernecker, facing what would be his final batter, got the third out to preserve the tie.
 

NJIT, hitless against the Lehigh bullpen, got three more walks, the third of which brought Kent with one out and a runner on first base in the bottom of the eighth. He did not allow a baserunner the rest of the way. 

Moreno, who took the mound for NJIT to start the eighth inning, worked around a leadoff error and a walk in the eighth and a leadoff single in the ninth, holding the Mountain Hawks at bay through his first two innings.

He got the first two outs of the 10th on an infield grounder and a strikeout before Groome's second hit of the day, the double off the left center field fence. Russell, hitless to that point, then hit the ball hard inside of first base to bring home what proved to be the winning run.

NJIT will play a three-game weekend series against Monmouth, last season's Northeast Conference regular season champion. The first two games will be played in Newark, with the Highlanders scheduled to visit the Hawks in West Long Branch, NJ, on Sunday.

The first game is set for a 4 pm first pitch on Friday at Bears and Eagles Riverfront Stadium.