Box score
EDINBURG, TX—Northern Colorado, the top-seeded team in Pool 2 of the inaugural Great West Conference Baseball Tournament, scored first and gradually pulled away for a 9-1 win over NJIT in the first day of action hosted by Texas-Pan American at Edinburg Baseball Stadium on Wednesday.
The Bears, who were 22-6 in the Great West regular season, including 4-0 against NJIT in an early-May weekend series, scored a run in the second and added three more in the fourth inning. The Highlanders (13-42 overall after a 9-18 conference regular season mark) got what would be their only run in the top of the sixth inning, closing the score to 4-1.
However, Northern Colorado (33-22 overall) answered with a run in the bottom of the sixth and then pulled farther away with four runs in the bottom of the seventh inning.
The winning pitcher was Northern Colorado starter James Quisenberry (5-4), who pitched the first six innings and managed to get through with one run allowed, despite yielding five hits and five bases-on-balls.
Quisenberry had pitched the first seven innings of a 10-win when the teams met on May 9. Back then, he was backed by two relievers who did not allow a hit or a run in two innings. On Wednesday at the GWC Tournament, he got three innings of one-hit shutout relief from two pitchers—two innings from Tyler Wallace and one inning from Scott Cure.
The losing pitcher for NJIT was LHP Tripp Davis (3-7), who likely pitched for the final time in what has been a promising freshman season.
He had allowed four runs in the first six innings the first time he saw the potent Northern Colorado lineup and he was solid again in the postseason meeting, allowing five runs through the first six innings. His final line showed 6.1 innings pitched, with five earned runs (six overall) on eight hits. He walked three and struck out five.
Davis was followed by three NJIT relievers, two of whom, Steven Ace and John Prestano, did not allow any additional runs.
Northern Colorado notched 10 hits, with two hits each coming from the fifth, sixth, seventh, and eighth men in the batting order.
Mark Shannon, the number eight hitter, was 2-for-3 and drove in four runs. Mike Raudenbush and Casey Coy, who each had a pair of hits, as well, each collected two runs batted in.
NJIT had six hits and half of them came from sophomore RF Anthony Caiola, who was 3-for-3. Caiola now has a five-game hitting streak, which includes the final regular-season series, a four-game set against North Dakota, plus the postseason game vs. Northern Colorado. He is 8-for-15 (.533) in the hitting streak.
The Highlander run, in the top of the sixth, came after Matt Tomczyk led off with a walk and then, after an out, Jeffrey Pizzi doubled down the left field line for the RBI.
The Bears had gotten on the board in the second inning, propelled by Raudenbush's run-scoring double. Their three-run fourth inning was keyed by a two-run, two-out single by Shannon. Raudenbush hit a solo home run in the bottom of the sixth and Coy and Shannon each singled home a pair of runs in the four-run bottom of the seventh inning.
Pool play is scheduled to continue on Thursday. NJIT, seeded seventh, will take on third-seeded NYIT at approximately 4 pm (CDT).
