Game One Box Score
Game Two Box Score
NEWARK, NJ—NJIT and visiting Houston Baptist wrapped up their four-game Great West Conference baseball series with their second doubleheader split in two days, as the Highlanders took Saturday's opening game in 10 innings, 3-2, and the Huskies came back to clinch the nightcap 7-2 in action at Bears and Eagles Riverfront Stadium.
On Friday, the team's split, as well, with HBU taking the opener 11-0 and NJIT rebounding for a 3-1 win in the second game.
With Saturday's games in the books, Houston Baptist is 8-4 in the Great West Conference and 10-28 overall, while NJIT is 4-8 in the GWC and 11-23 overall.
The Highlanders scored a stirring win in taking the 3-2 10-inning victory to open the day on Saturday, as sophomore 3B Jeff Peterson, the reigning Great West Conference Player of the Week, singled with the bases loaded and one out to drive in the game-winner in the 10th.
For Peterson, the game-winning hit was redemption after his two-out error in the ninth inning that allowed Houston Baptist to score the tying run and keep the game going.
NJIT was a strike away from a 2-1 win, but the Huskies pulled even on Peterson's error, his team's first of the game. With two outs and two strikes in the top of the ninth, 3B Tanner Kalina of the Huskies hit a ground ball through Peterson's legs and RF Kolby Arnst, who earlier had hit his team's second single of the inning, scored the tying run on the play.
The Huskies had been denied the tying run earlier in the inning on a great play by NJIT left fielder DJ Roche. Jake Gonzalez led off the inning with a single and JP Seipel came on as a pinch runner. Seipel advanced on a sacrifice bunt and when Arnst singled to left field, Seipel tried to score from second.
But Roche, who threw out a runner at the plate last week vs. Texas-Pan American, did it again against HBU, making a head-high throw from left to catcher Bryan Bleakley, who applied the tag to Seipel, who was out by at least two steps.
Arnst, who went to second on Roche's throw, later stole third, putting himself in position to score the tying run on the error that was to come.
After reliever Kyle Burdi threw a scoreless top of the 10th inning for the Highlanders, they pulled out a walkoff win in the bottom of the frame.
Matt Tomczyk led off with his third hit of the game and Teddy Bickert, who dropped down a sacrifice bunt, reached base when Tomczyk slid in ahead of HBU's attempt to force him out at second base.
Matt Weckerle put down a beautiful sacrifice bunt to advance the two runners and HBU coach Jared Moon opted to walk Bleakley intentionally, loading the bases. Peterson, the next batter, won the game with a clean single over the second baseman's head into right field.
The Highlanders finished game one with 10 hits, led by Tomczyk's 3-for-5 that included his first home run of the year, a solo shot with two outs in the third inning. Bleakley finished 2-for-3, including a double, and Matt Weckerle and Roche each went 2-for-4.
Houston Baptist got seven hits, all singles, led by Gonzalez, who was 2-for-4.
Both starters were terrific, but neither got a win on Saturday. NJIT's Tripp Davis went nine innings and allowed seven hits, while striking out 9 and walking 3. He allowed two runs, including the painful unearned tying run that resulted in a no-decision.
Davis has made three Great West starts and has a win and two no-decisions. His conference earned run average is 1.73 in 26 innings, which include 26 strikeouts and just 4 walks.
Burdi, who would relieve in both ends of the doubleheader, got the opening-game win to go 2-5 on the season with his scoreless top of the 10th.
HBU's Chase Hernandez (2-4) went the distance, taking the loss in 9.1 innings. He allowed 10 hits and the 3 runs, striking out 5 and walking 3.
The teams traded runs in the third inning of the opener. Houston Baptist got on the board in the top half when Asai Adame, who led off with a single, went to second on a sacrifice bunt, and on to third on a wild pitch, came home on Collin Hetzler's ground out to second base. NJIT answered in the bottom half on Tomczyk's two-out solo home run.
The Highlanders took the lead in the bottom of the fourth inning. Weckerle and Roche opened with singles. Peterson bunted into a force out at third base and Bleakley walked to load the bases. The next batter, Anthony Caiola bounced to the first baseman, who came home for the force out, but the return throw from the catcher went wide in the attempt to double up Caiola at first base. When the ball escaped down the line, Peterson rounded third and scored the go-ahead run, which lasted until HBU tied the score with two outs in the ninth inning.
The Huskies, who never trailed in the second game, won 7-2 after taking charge almost from the start, as DH Robbie Buller, the third batter of the game, hit his ninth home run of the season, a one-out shot inside the left field pole with a man on base.
The winning pitcher for Houston Baptist was freshman RHP Kyle Dickerson (2-0), who went the first 6 innings, allowing 9 hits and 2 runs (1 earned), while striking out 5 without a walk.
He was followed by freshman RHP Kobie Hajdik, the first and only HBU reliever in the entire series, who blanked NJIT on one hit over the final three innings for his third save of the year.
The losing pitcher was the Highlander starter, sophomore LHP Austin McAuliffe (0-4), who pitched the first 5.1 innings and allowed 6 runs (4 earned) on 7 hits and 3 walks. Burdi went the last 3.2 innings and allowed a run on 4 hits. He struck out five.
Buller's home run was his only hit of game two, but his two runs batted in led the Huskies. Beau Warren, Arnst, and Adame each collected a pair of hits and drove in a run, while Kalina was 2-for-4 and scored twice.
NJIT, which had 10 hits and left 12 men on base in the game, got a pair of hits each from Weckerle, Peterson, and Tyler Kapp, who drove in one run, as did Vincent Del Vecchio.
Already leading by two runs, the Huskies added two more in the second inning on two hits and an NJIT error, for a 4-0 lead. NJIT got single runs in the second and fourth innings to trim the deficit to 4-2, but HBU got one of the runs back, unearned, in the top of the fifth.
A turning point for Dickerson came in the bottom of the fifth inning when the Highlanders loaded the bases with one out, but he kept them from scoring, quieting the threat with a strikeout and a fly out to right field.
Houston Baptist added single runs in the sixth and seventh innings and Dickerson and Hajdik combined to keep NJIT scoreless over the last five innings.
By the teams completing the four-game series on Friday and Saturday, there will be no game on Easter Sunday, as had been set on the original schedule. With rain in the earlier forecast for Saturday and Sunday, the schedule was reset to play doubleheaders on Friday and Saturday.
NJIT is scheduled to play a non-conference doubleheader against Saint Peter's on Wednesday starting at 3:30 pm at Bears and Eagles Riverfront Stadium.
The home doubleheader on Wednesday is also a revision of the original schedule, which called for a single game at Saint Peter's. However, the field at Saint Peter's does not have lights and the teams wanted to make up a game that was rained out in early March. Moving the game to Newark, with the lights at Bears and Eagles Riverfront Stadium, makes it possible to play a doubleheader with a late afternoon start.
