Game One Box Score
Game Two Box Score
FLEMINGTON, NJ—Visiting Northern Colorado swept Sunday's Great West Conference baseball doubleheader from NJIT, 10-0 and 14-5, completing a clean sweep of the two-day, four-game series at the Diamond Nation complex.
The Bears stayed hot as a team, extending their Great West record to 15-5, which is good for second place in the conference, three games behind leader Utah Valley. Northern Colorado, 25-21 overall, has won its last six consecutive games and 21 of 27 since April 2.
NJIT drops to 7-12 in the Great West, with conference series remaining at Utah Valley next weekend and then at home starting on May 21 against North Dakota.
Of individual note, Northern Colorado sophomore CF Jarod Berggren got hits in each game Sunday, extending one of the longest consecutive-game hitting streaks in Division I to 30. He was 2-for-3 in game one, including a two-run home run, his eighth, in the first inning. And he got a single in his first at-bat of game two to keep the streak going.
The visitors, who got strong pitching on Saturday, allowing one run in each of their wins, topped those in Sunday's opener, as three pitchers combined for a shutout.
Starting and winning pitcher James Quisenberry (3-4) took a slightly different route than his Saturday predecessors, who had combined for 20 strikeouts in Saturday's twin bill. Pitching to contact, Quisenberry notched just two strikeouts in seven innings, but limited the Highlanders to three hits, with no more than one base runner in an inning.
Two UNC relievers pitched an inning each to close out just the second shutout pitched against NJIT in the last 28 games.
The losing pitcher in game one was NJIT starter Tripp Davis (2-5) who pitched much better for most of his day than his final totals (6.1 IP, 12 hits, 10 runs) indicated.
The freshman left-hander allowed a double by Tyler Borzileri to open the game and the second Northern Colorado batter, Berggren, homered to give the Bears a 2-0 lead. However, Davis set down the next 10 batters and 14 of 17 heading into the sixth inning.
Perhaps tiring a bit, Davis allowed back-to-back singles to start the sixth, before inducing a double-play grounder. But his scoreless streak ended when the next batter, Kyle Hardman, hit his team-leading 13th home run to give the Bears a 4-0 lead. Things got farther away in the seventh inning when Northern Colorado tacked on six more runs, highlighted by TJ Berge's grand slam.
Relievers John Gray and Reid Okita pitched the last 2.2 innings for NJIT, allowing no hits and only a walk between them.
Borzelari, Berggren, Berge, and Hardman all had two hits each for Northern Colorado. NJIT's four hits came from four different batters. Teddy Bickert got the first hit for a Highlanders, a single with one out in the third, while Jeffrey Pizzi produced the only extra-base hit on a double with one out in the sixth inning. John Berner also singled,
The second game, won by Northern Colorado, 14-5, included 18 hits and the team-leading 14th home run of the season for the Bears' Hardman. But it also included the most offense in the series by the Highlanders, who managed a total of two runs in the first three games.
The Bears picked up a run in the top of the first inning, but NJIT answered with two runs in the bottom half of the first inning, thanks to Berner, who hit his third home run of the season, a two-run shot that gave NJIT a 2-1 lead.
The lead was short-lived, however, as Northern Colorado struck for three runs in the top of the second inning and never trailed again.
The Highlanders picked up a run of their own in the bottom of the second when Vincent Del Vecchio singled leading off and came around two batters later on an RBI double by sophomore C John Bouck, who was making his first start of the series.
Northern Colorado scored three runs each in the fourth and fifth innings to pull away before NJIT's second reliever of the game, DJ Roche came in and enforced some order. The hard-throwing freshman started the sixth inning and allowed hits to the first two batters before getting a double play that began a run of nine outs against the next 11 men he faced, resulting in three straight zeros on the scoreboard.
Roche's final inning, the ninth, did not go so well, as he allowed Hardman's 14th home run of the season, a two-run shot, and a two-run double by Tony Crudo. The rough ninth inning left Roche with a total four innings pitched and six hits (three in the ninth) and four runs (all four in the ninth). He struck out three and walked three.
At bat, NJIT scored twice in the fifth inning with the runs coming on a bases-loaded walk to Matt Tomczyk and a fielder's choice with the bases loaded for the next batter, Del Vecchio.
The winning pitcher in game two was Mark Shannon (5-2), who pitched the first five innings and gave up all six NJIT hits and all five of the Highlanders' runs (three earned). Brendan Hall and Tyler Wallace locked down the win for the Bears with four innings of hitless, scoreless relief. Hall pitched three innings and allowed only a walk, while Wallace pitched a 1-2-3 ninth inning.
The losing pitcher for NJIT was starter Kyle Burdi who is 0-6 in his freshman season after pitching into the fourth inning on Sunday.
Seven of the nine men in Northern Colorado's game two starting lineup produced multiple-hit games, paced by Hardman and Harrison Lambert, who collected three hits apiece. Hardman drove in four runs, while Berge and Crudo each added two RBI.
NJIT's six hits in the nightcap came from six different men. Berner's home run and Bouck's doubles were the two extra-base hits for the Highlanders.
Next up for the Highlanders is the final away regular season series of 2010, when they visit conference-leading Utah Valley for a four-game set, starting on Friday at 6 pm (MDT) in Orem, UT.
