Box score
LAWRENCEVILLE, NJ—Rider scored at least two runs in each of the first five innings and then eased to a 19-3 non-conference baseball win over visiting NJIT Wednesday afternoon.
The victorious Broncs got all the runs they would need for the win with a four-run first inning, but they added six more in the second inning and kept scoring until they built a 19-1 lead through five innings.
NJIT, which scored single runs in the fourth, eighth and ninth innings, used six pitchers, and the last two—sophomore Reid Okita and freshman DJ Roche kept Rider off the scoreboard from the sixth inning on. Okita worked one inning and Roche, NJIT's season earned run average leader at 3.00 in 15 innings over 11 relief outings, pitched two innings against Rider.
The losing pitcher, in his first college start, was NJIT freshman Ian Wladika. After shutting out Maine for more than five innings in relief last Saturday, the knuckleballer allowed six runs (five earned) in 1.1 innings at Rider.
Typical of midweek college games once conference play has begun, Rider, too, used a lot of pitchers. Freshman Joe Calogero (2-0) started and pitched four innings, allowing four hits and one run. He was followed on the mound by five relievers, each of whom pitched one inning.
Rider piled up 17 hits, paced by AJ Albee, who drilled three hits, including a pair of triples, with three runs batted in. Five Broncs had two hits apiece, including 1B Mason Heyne, who drove in four runs.
Rider got just two hits in the first inning, but scored four times, highlighted by a two-out, two-run triple for 3B Adam Wayman. The Broncs combined four hits with two NJIT errors in a six-run second inning and then added two more runs in the third inning on a two-run double by DH Ian Lindsay, who finished with three RBI.
NJIT, which defeated Rider, 5-3, when the teams played in Newark last April 15, got its first run in the fourth inning, as C Bryan Bleakley, who finished the game 2-for-3, doubled leading off, went to third on a one-out wild pitch and scored on an infield single for RF Anthony Caiola.
Bleakley hit his team-leading fifth home run for the Highlanders with two outs in the eighth inning and Caiola manufactured the final NJIT run in the ninth inning, reaching first base on a strikeout wild pitch, stealing second and third and coming home on another wild pitch.
Bleakley was the only Highlander with more than one hit. His double and home run were also the only extra-base hits among the six NJIT safeties. Caiola, 2B Matt Tomczyk, SS Vincent Del Vecchio, and pinch hitter John Bouck all had singles.
The Highlanders next will play their first-ever Great West Conference baseball series in Texas, when they visit Houston Baptist for a four-game series beginning Friday at 2 pm (CDT). Great West Conference series are scheduled for a single game on Fridays, a doubleheader on Saturdays, and a single game on Sundays.
