Game One Box Score
Game Two Box Score
OLD WESTBURY, NY—NJIT freshman Mark Leiter Jr pitched a nine-inning complete game and the Highlanders came from behind to score a 10-4 win in the second game of their Great West Conference baseball doubleheader at NYIT Saturday afternoon.
The victory in Saturday's nightcap earned the visiting Highlanders a split of the doubleheader, as NYIT took the first game, a seven-inning affair, 7-2.
Saturday's split left the NYIT Bears with a 10-5 conference record, while the NJIT Highlanders are 7-7 in the Great West.
NJIT's Leiter allowed one run in each of the first three innings and then held the normally high-scoring Bears to just one run over the last six innings. In the end, he produced a solid line—9 innings, 10 hits, 3 earned runs (4 total), 5 strikeouts, and 2 walks.
The win raised his season won-lost record to 3-5, as he took over the team lead in wins and innings pitched (60.1) to go with three of his team's five complete games.
His effort against NYIT was especially impressive considering that the Bears, who are 18-17-2 overall, average nearly 7.5 runs per game and have scored in double figures 12 times, including six of the seven games that preceded Saturday's doubleheader.
The Bears' single runs in each of the first two innings allowed them to build an early 2-0 lead, but the Highlanders erupted for five runs in the third inning and never trailed the rest of the day, as Leiter tightened the screws on the home team's offense.
The big blow in NJIT's five-run third inning was a three-run home run for C Bryan Bleakley. It was the team-leading sixth homer of the season for the sophomore Bleakley, who was 2-for-5 in the game. His three runs batted in raised his season total in that category to a team-best 24.
NYIT got its third run in the bottom of the third inning. But the Highlanders gave Leiter some more breathing room with two runs in the fifth inning, one in the sixth, and two more in the seventh inning.
NJIT collected 14 hits in its win, paced by three RF Jeffrey Pizzi, who scored twice and drove in two runs. Four Highlanders—Bleakley, John Berner, Matt Petrone, and Teddy Bickert --got two hits each. One of Petrone's hits was an RBI triple with two outs in the seventh inning and Berner doubled in front of Bleakley's homer in the third.
The losing pitcher for NYIT was starter Tom Cardona (2-3), who allowed seven runs (four earned) in five innings. He was followed by four relievers.
Three Bears got two hits each in the second game, including 1B Christian Dienna, who hit a home run leading off the bottom of the second inning.
NYIT won Saturday's first game comfortably, scoring in five of the six innings in which it batted, while getting a strong seven-inning complete game from pitcher Andrew Guarrasi (5-3).
A senior left-hander, Guarrasi scattered six hits and allowed just two runs, both of which came on a sixth-inning home run by NJIT's John Berner, his second of the season. Guarrasi also struck out 10 Highlanders and did not issue a walk.
Berner (2-for-3) was the only Highlander with more than one hit in game one.
The losing pitcher was NJIT junior LHP Bobby Wyrwa, who went the first five innings and allowed 10 hits and six runs (five earned). Reid Okita allowed one run in one inning of relief.
NYIT SS Brian Smith got three hits, including his ninth home run of the year, and drove in four runs. After the doubleheader, Smith was batting .375 with 10 home runs and 36 RBI.
3B Effrey Valdez and CF Jerry Smith added two hits apiece for the Bears and one of the hits by Valdez was a solo home run for NYIT's first tally of the day.
The Bears added another single run in the second game and then Brian Smith's two-run homer keyed their three-run third inning, before they tacked on a run in the fourth inning and one more in the sixth.
The four-game series is scheduled to move west from Long Island to Newark for a single game on Sunday, with first pitch set for 1 pm at Bears and Eagles Riverfront Stadium.
