Box score
AUBURNDALE, FL--NJIT wrapped up its four-game Spring Break baseball trip to Florida Saturday morning with a disappointing 2-1 loss to Long Island University.
The Highlanders posted a 1-3 record on the trip and all three losses were by a margin of one run. NJIT is 3-10 on the season overall and is 1-4 in games decided by one run.
On the plus side, NJIT is getting some of the best pitching it has had since beginning competition at the Division I level in the 2007 season. Saturday's performance by losing pitcher Bobby Wyrwa was not only one of the best NJIT has had in a loss in its Division I era, it was one of the best pitching efforts in the Division I era, period.
The junior left-hander took a no-hitter into the sixth inning and finished with a complete-game eight-inning line of two hits allowed, two runs (one earned) and five strikeouts with four walks. Three of the four walks and a hit by pitch took place in the eighth inning, as LIU broke a 1-1 tie and scored what would be the winning run without benefit of a hit.
The winning pitcher for the Blackbirds was reliever Evan Zerff (1-0), who pitched the last two innings and did not allow a hit or a run. He was the fourth LIU pitcher. NJIT collected a total of 10 hits, nine against starter Adam Sauter. But the Highlanders, who left nine men on base, managed just a lone first-inning run.
Freshman Teddy Bickert, playing first base, finished 4-for-4, including a leadoff double in the third inning that was the only extra-base hit for either team. He also singled in the first inning and scored NJIT's only run on a two-out single by 3B John Berner. Bickert is batting .375 through the first 13 games of his college career.
RF Jeffrey Pizzi, who had a 13-game hitting streak late in his freshman season, is hot again to start his sophomore campaign. Pizzi was 2-for-4 against LIU, raising his 2010 batting average to a team-leading .406.
The Highlanders got their first-inning run when Bickert singled with one out, moved to second on an infield out and then scored on Berner's single to right field with two out.
NJIT left a total of four men on base over the next three innings, but with Wyrwa throwing a perfect game for four innings and then working around a leadoff error while maintaining the no-hitter through five innings, the slim 1-0 advantage held up.
The Highlanders left two men on base in the top of the sixth before the Blackbirds tied the score in the bottom of the frame on an unearned run. After a leadoff error, LIU RF Albert Faz got his team's first hit, a single to center field that advanced LF Julian Castro to third base. Wyrwa induced a 3-6-3 double play, but Castro, who had reached on the error, came across the plate with the tying run.
The score stayed at 1-1 until the bottom of the eighth inning, when Castro walked leading off and went to second on a sacrifice bunt by Faz. Gerard Tingos, whose double play ball in the sixth inning had sent the tying run home, was hit by a pitch with one out in the eighth. After a fly out, Tyler Jones walked to load the bases and then Drew Walsh walked with the bases loaded, forcing in what proved to be the winning run.
Trailing for the first time, NJIT got two baserunners in the top of the ninth inning, but did not score. James D'Aloia was hit by a pitch with one out, but was cut down trying to get into scoring position with a steal attempt. Matt Tomczyk followed with a two-out walk, but the game ended when the winning pitcher, Zerff, induced a fly out to end the contest.
The Highlanders are slated to visit Lehigh in Bethlehem, PA, for a single game on Wednesday at 3 pm.
