Box score
CHICAGO—NJIT opened its Great West Conference baseball series at Chicago State Friday by combining a season-best 14 runs scored with nine scoreless innings pitched for a 14-0 result in the first of four games scheduled this weekend between the two teams.
The Highlanders, who rapped out a season-high 18 hits, including 10 doubles and a triple, scored two runs each in the first and third innings and then broke it open with five runs in the fifth inning and then four more in the seventh, before closing things out with a run in the eighth.
NJIT's previous scoring high came in a 13-12 win at North Carolina A&T back on March 6, the high hits total for the Highlanders had been 15 in an 8-7 loss in Florida to North Dakota State on March 19.
Meanwhile, the NJIT starting pitcher, junior Bobby Wyrwa raised his season record to 2-3 with six innings of scoreless three-hit ball.
Wyrwa, who has a 2-1 complete-game loss and a 3-2 complete-game win, finally got plenty of run support and could comfortably turn it over to the bullpen to finish up on Friday. He struck out four and walked three against Chicago State while lowering his season earned run average to 4.15, tops among the NJIT starting pitchers and second on the team.
Reid Okita, Frank Shivers, and John Prestano all followed Wyrwa and each worked an inning without allowing a run. Okita did not allow a hit and had a strikeout. Shivers allowed a hit and struck out two, and Prestano finished with one hit allowed and one strikeout. The four NJIT pitchers combined to allow five hits, four of them singles, and strike out eight.
Albert Carpen, a sophomore left-hander, started and took the loss for the Cougars. He is 0-3 after going 4.2 innings and allowing nine runs (eight earned) against NJIT.One of three Carpens from Whiting, IN, on the Chicago State roster, he was followed on Friday by five relief pitchers.
Not surprisingly, the NJIT lineup was loaded with batting stars on this 18-hit, 14-run day.
Matt Petrone, Bryan Bleakley, Marc Prager, and John Berner all collected three hits apiece for the Highlanders.
Berner, who hit two doubles, drove in four runs, while Bleakley, who also hit two doubles, drove in a pair, as did Petrone, who doubled and tripled out of the leadoff spot. Berner and Bleakley each scored three runs.
Prager, who doubled among his three hits, drove in two runs. He is 11-for-23 in April, raising his season average to .326. Matt Tomczyk, who was 2-for-4, had a double and a run batted in.
Chicago State, with five total hits, got two singles from LF Kellon McFarlin, and the Cougars' extra-base hit was a double off the bat of DH Miguel Camacho.
NJIT got its first run on back-to-back two-out doubles in the first inning by Bleakley and Berner. Prager later singled to score Berner with the second Highlander run.
Berner and Prager each delivered RBI doubles for a 4-0 lead in the third inning.
Bleakley, Prager, and Jeffrey Pizzi all doubled in NJIT's five-run fifth inning, with Pizzi, Petrone, and Tomczyk all getting runs batted in.
The Highlanders got four more runs in the seventh inning, highlighted by Berner's two-run single, plus bases-loaded walks for Teddy Bickert and Bleakley. NJIT's 14th and final run came on back-to-back one-out doubles in the eighth inning by Tomczyk and Petrone.
Chicago State's best scoring chance came in the third inning when it loaded the bases with one out on an NJIT error, a walk and a hit-by-pitch. But Wyrwa induced a 6-4-3 double play to extinguish the threat.
Friday's result left NJIT with a 2-3 Great West Conference record and a 6-23 mark overall. Chicago State is 1-25 overall and 0-5 in the Great West.
The teams are set to meet again in a doubleheader on Saturday, with first pitch slated for noon Central time.
