Game One Box Score
Game Two Box Score
FLEMINGTON, NJ—Visiting Northern Colorado swept both ends of Saturday's Great West Conference baseball doubleheader from NJIT, defeating the Highlanders, 13-1 and 7-1, at the Diamond Nation baseball complex.
The Bears, who entered play in a tie for second place in the Great West, raised their conference record to 13-5 with the two wins. They are 23-21 overall and have won 19 of their 25 games since April 2, including the last four in a row.
NJIT, which was fifth in the eight-team Great West entering the weekend, drops to 7-10 in the conference after the two losses on Saturday.
Northern Colorado won Saturday's nine-inning opening game easily, scoring at least once in seven different innings, while getting often-dominant pitching from ace junior right-hander Joe Sawicki, who pitched a complete-game six-hitter, with a career-best 12 strikeouts and one walk.
Sawicki, a two-time Great West Conference Pitcher of the Week, is 7-2 after shutting down the Highlanders.
The Bears never trailed the seven-inning nightcap, but the outcome was very much in doubt until the late going, when they turned a 2-1 lead through five innings into a 7-1 win by scoring twice in the sixth inning and then three times in the seventh inning.
Both teams got complete games from their starting pitchers in game two, as Northern Colorado's Joe Willman (5-5) got the best of NJIT's Mark Leiter Jr, who was very strong through the first five innings until the Bears got to him late. Leiter (3-6) pitched his third complete game in his last four starts and has pitched 30 of the team's 32 innings in those four starts.
Willman scattered six hits and allowed the one run, while striking out eight and walking three.
Leiter's final line showed seven innings pitched and seven runs on eight hits, but five of the runs and four of the hits came in the last two innings. He struck out four and walked two.
UNC backed up Sawicki's strong pitching in the opener with an attack that featured 14 hits, including two doubles and two home runs, plus a school single-game record 10 stolen bases. The Bears also made productive outs, getting runs on three sacrifice flies.
Junior 1B Kyle Hardman and sophomore SS Tony Crudo were the hitting leaders, each producing three hits and hitting a home run. Hardman's solo home run in the third inning was his team-leading 12th and he added an RBI double in the eighth inning. Crudo, who doubled home a run in the second inning, hit his fifth home run, a shot down the left field line, leading off the fourth inning.
Crudo finished with three runs batted in, while Hardman and C Seth Budde each added two RBI. Seven different Bears stole bases to take part in the school-record game. Jarod Berggren and Mike Raudenbush were the stolen base leaders with two apiece.
After a scoreless first inning, Northern Colorado scored two runs each in the second and third innings, one in the fourth, two in the fifth, and then a total of six runs in the last three innings.
NJIT got its lone run against Sawicki on a fourth-inning single by DH Marc Prager, who punched the ball through the right side of the infield, driving home Matt Petrone, who led off the inning with a walk and moved to third base on the first of two doubles by C Bryan Bleakley.
The sophomore catcher Bleakley was 3-for-3 in the game and hit the ball hard on all three, with a sharp single to center field in the second inning, a ground-rule double that bounced over the fence in the right center field gap, and a double off the base of the center field wall in the sixth inning.
Bleakley's two doubles were the only exra-base hits in the game for NJIT. His 14 doubles on the season are tops among the Highlanders.
Bobby Wyrwa, the first of four NJIT pitchers, was charged with the loss, leaving his record at 2-6. He pitched five innings and allowed seven runs (six earned).
The most effective Highlander pitcher in the opener was the first reliever, Frank Shivers, who allowed one run in two innings. He got a huge lift in the seventh inning from a spectacular leaping catch at the left center field fence by CF James D'Aloia, who went up and pulled back what would have been a two-run homer for Northern Colorado's Tyler Wallace.
Northern Colorado used three hits in the first inning, including a two-out RBI double by Wallace to grab a 1-0 lead in game two. The Bears went up 2-0 on a leadoff home run for DH Casey Coy on a low opposite field drive to right field.
NJIT answered with what would be its only run of the game in the bottom half of the inning, as 2B Matt Tomczyk led off with his fourth home run of the season, a towering shot that got up into the gusting winds and carried far over the right field fence.
Both pitchers settled in after giving up their second-inning home runs. Leiter retired 13 straight after the Coy home run in the second inning and Willman kept NJIT off the scoreboard after allowing Tomczyk second-inning shot.
Leiter's string of consecutive Bears retired ended with one out in the sixth inning when TJ Berge doubled. The next batter, Hardman, hit a ground-rule double to bring in Berge, and Wallace made it three hits in a row, singling to drive home Hardman with the second run of the inning, making the score 4-1 for UNC.
The Highlanders threatened to get right back into contention in the bottom of the sixth, as John Berner led off with a double and, after an out, Tomczyk walked, bringing the tying run to the plate. However, Wellman, who would post a personal-best with his eight strikeouts, got two of them on the next two Highlanders, choking off what would be NJIT's last threat of the day.
The Bears, who did not attempt a steal in the first six innings of the nightcap, stole twice in the seventh inning and one of the steals helped to set up the first of their three runs in the frame. Adrian Schenk led off with a walk, stole second and then got to third on a wild pitch before coming home on a sacrifice fly by Mark Shannon. After another out, Berge hit his fifth home run of the year, clearing the right field wall for UNC's sixth and seventh runs.
Berge was 3-for-4 in the second game, while Wallace, who was robbed of a home run by NJIT's D'Aloia, finished 2-for-3. Berge and Wallace each drove in two runs.
D'Aloia and Petrone, the first two men in the NJIT batting order, each finished the nightcap 2-for-4, but the rest of the lineup managed only two hits combined.
NJIT and Northern Colorado will wrap up the conference series on Sunday with another doubleheader at Diamond Nation. The teams are scheduled to play two nine-inning games starting at 3 pm.
