Box score (game 1)

Box score (game 2)


EDINBURG, TX—NJIT took the second game of Saturday's Great West Conference doubleheader at Texas-Pan American Saturday, 11-5, which was good for a split and gave the Highlanders their first GWC win of 2011 while also handing the Broncs their first conference defeat.

 

NJIT (7-21 overall, 1-6 Great West) had dropped Saturday's opener 10-1, which came on the heels of a 14-7 loss on Friday night to begin the four-game series. UTPA (16-11, 6-1 Great West) saw its season-best seven-game winning streak ended with the Highlander win in the nightcap. The teams are slated to close the series with a single game on Sunday, starting at noon CDT.

 

NJIT trailed Saturday's second game 2-0 after the first inning, but the Highlanders broke out with seven runs in the second inning and led by at least four runs the rest of the day.

 

Sophomore RHP Mark Leiter Jr raised his season won-lost record to 2-1 with his third straight outstanding start for the Highlanders. His line against Texas-Pan American was a solid 7 innings, 8 hits, 3 runs, 3 walks, and 10 strikeouts. Those totals are all the more impressive considering the fact that UTPA had posted double-figure scoring totals in six of the games in the seven-game winning streak halted by Leiter and the Highlanders.

 

Leiter's two starts before his win in Texas were: 8 innings, 3 hits, and 2 runs in a 3-2 win over Hartford and 9 innings, 4 hits, 3 runs, and a school Division I-record 13 strikeouts in a no-decision against defending GWC champ Utah Valley. His totals the last three games show a 2-0 record, 24 innings, 15 hits, 8 runs (3.00 ERA), 27 strikeouts and 10 walks.

 

John Prestano finished up the win for NJIT, allowing two runs in the final two innings on four hits.

 

Seven different Highlanders accounted for the team's 12 hits, led by Teddy Bickert, who was 4-for-6, including a double and drove in two runs while scoring three. Matt Weckerle and Anthony Caiola each added a pair of hits to the NJIT total. DJ Roche had one hit, but it was his team-leading 12th double of the year and he also drove in two runs, raising his RBI total to 25 in 28 games.

 

Texas-Pan American also had 12 hits in the nightcap, paced again by junior catcher, Mike McCarthy, who was 4-for-5 with two runs batted in. McCarthy, who also drove in a pair of runs in UTPA's 10-1 win in the opener, is 8-for-11, including two doubles and a triple, with 8 RBI in the first three games of the series.

 

Coincidentally, McCarthy and NJIT head coach Mike Cole were together at the University of Vermont in 2009, when Cole was an assistant coach and McCarthy was an All-America East Rookie catcher. Vermont dropped baseball after the season and McCarthy transferred to Texas-Pan Am, while Cole went to Maine as an assistant coach for the 2010 season and then to NJIT as head coach last August.

 

McCarthy and RF Stuart MacInnes each singled home runs for the Broncs in the first inning, but the 2-0 lead was short-lived and UTPA would trail the rest of the day after NJIT exploded for seven second-inning runs.

 

Anthony Caiola and John Bouck opened NJIT's big second inning with singles and they both eventually came around to score in a frame that saw 11 Highlanders come to the plate. Bickert hit a two-run double and Jeff Peterson walked with the bases loaded and Bryan Bleakley was hit by a pitch with the bases loaded. Caiola and Bouck picked up RBI on their second at-bats of the inning, as Caiola singled home a run and Bouck drove in a run on a fielder's choice.

 

UTPA picked up another run in the third inning, but NJIT got it back in the sixth inning for an 8-3 lead and then the Highlanders struck for three runs in seventh before the Broncs picked up single scores in the eighth and ninth innings, respectively.

 

Matt Weckerle drove in a run with a single and Roche hit a two-run double to key NJIT's three-run seventh inning.

 

Cody Plunk (1-3) started and took the loss for Texas-Pan American, allowing 6 runs (5 earned) in one inning plus six batters, all of whom reached base, in the second inning. Three relievers, all of whom gave up at least one run, followed Plunk to the mound.

 

Texas-Pan American won the seven-inning first game easily, as sophomore RHP Luis Flores (1-2) started and went all the way for the Broncs, scattering 6 hits and allowing a single unearned run.

 

The losing pitcher in his second college start was NJIT's sophomore RHP DJ Roche, who had not allowed a run a week ago in 9 innings of his first college start, a no-decision against Utah Valley. On Saturday, Roche last 5 innings and allowed 7 runs (5 earned). Frank Shivers pitched the last inning and gave up 3 runs.

 

Texas-Pan American had only 7 hits in the game, but the Broncs also drew five walks, and had two doubles, a two-run homer and two sacrifice flies.

 

The home run came off the bat of SS Roger Bernal with no one out in the bottom of the first inning. The Broncs added two more runs in the third inning and then a pair of three-run innings in the fifth and sixth. UTPA leadoff man LF Alex Carnall scored three times and was 2-for-2 with a walk. He also drove in a run.

 

In addition to Bernal's two runs batted in, McCarthy, the red-hot hitting catcher, drove in a pair of runs with a double in the fifth inning.

 

NJIT's top hitter in the opening game was senior SS Matt Tomczyk, who was 2-for-3. Jeff Peterson and Tyler Kapp each hit doubles for the Highlanders, as well. Tomczyk, whose 12-game hitting streak came to an end with an 0-for-4 in Friday night's series opener, got hits in both ends of Saturday's doubleheader and has hits in 15 of the last 17 games, while reaching safely in all 17 contests. He leads the Highlanders in batting average (.340), runs (20), and on-base percentage (.454).

 

The lone run for the Highlanders came in the top of the third inning. Vincent Del Vecchio, who reached base on a fielder's choice, came in on another fielder's choice play that also included an error.