Box score (game 1)

Box score (game 2)

GREELEY, CO—Surging Northern Colorado extended its Great West Conference winning streak to seven consecutive games Saturday, sweeping a GWC baseball doubleheader from visiting NJIT by scores of 6-4 and 4-0.

 

The Bears, who have won eight of their last nine overall, are 11-4 in Great West play and 15-27 overall. NJIT, which had split its previous two four-game GWC series, has dropped the first three games against Northern Colorado and is 4-11 in conference play. The Highlanders are 11-28 overall.

 

A program in rebuilding mode under first-year head coach Mike Cole, NJIT was 9-15 in the month of April. The Highlanders had been 9-9 through the first 18 games of the month, helped along by a 6-3 stretch from April 13 to the opening game of a doubleheader on April 23. But they lost the nightcap on the 23rd, beginning slide that has reached six with Saturday's doubleheader sweep by Northern Colorado.

 

Both games of the doubleheader, a seven-inning first game and a nine-inning second game were completed in less than two hours each.

 

The Bears led the first game 3-0 and 4-1, but NJIT rallied to tie the score with three runs in the top of the fifth inning, only to have UNC answer with two deciding runs in the bottom half of the same inning.

 

Northern Colorado got single runs in the second, third, fifth, and eighth innings, while three Bears pitchers were combining to shut out NJIT in the nightcap. The shutout win was the first of the year for the home team and the fifth time this season the Highlanders have been blanked. They were shut out in the first two games of the season in late February, but then scored at least one run in each of their next 20 games. However, they have been shut out three times, all in conference play, beginning with a 2-0 loss in 11 innings vs. Utah Valley on April 9.

 

Northern Colorado used three pitchers to win the 6-4 opening game on Saturday and the win was credited to the first reliever, freshman RHP Chris Hammer (2-4), who entered the game in the middle of NJIT's three-run fifth inning and allowed two inherited runners to score, but then took the when his team reclaimed the lead in the bottom half of the inning. He pitched a scoreless sixth inning and was credited with two innings pitched and one hit and one walk, but no runs. Junior LHP Nate Steinmetz earned his second save with a 1-2-3 seventh inning in relief of Hammer.

 

The losing pitcher was NJIT sophomore right-hander DJ Roche (0-4), who pitched a complete game, allowing 9 hits and 6 runs (5 earned) in 6 innings. He struck out six and walked two.

 

LF Jarod Berggren, who was 6-for-7 in the doubleheader, led UNC in the opener, going 3-for-3 and driving in three runs. One of his hits was his fourth triple of the season. 2B TJ Berge was 2-for-3 for the Bears in game one.

 

Teddy Bickert went 2-for-4, including a double, to lead the NJIT hitters in game one. The Highlanders had seven hits in total, with five different players getting one hit each in addition to Bickert's two-hit effort.

 

The game was scoreless until the bottom of the third inning, when Northern Colorado came up with three runs, as Berge drove in the first run with a single and Berggren knocked in two more with a two-out single.

 

NJIT got its first run in the next half-inning when Bryan Bleakley, who had been hit by a pitch and advanced to third base on a single for Anthony Caiola, scored on a wild pitch. Northern Colorado got the run back in the bottom of the fourth with an unearned tally that made it 4-1.

 

The Highlanders, who managed four runs in 16 innings on Saturday, got three of them in the top of the fifth inning in the opener.

 

Matt Tomczyk led off with a walk and moved up to second base on a wild pitch. Bickert followed with an RBI double and then moved ahead to third base on Matt Weckerle's infield single. The two Highlanders then executed a double steal, with Bickert's score pulling his team to within a run at 4-3. The next two batters grounded out, with Jeff Peterson getting credit for an run batted in when Weckerle crossed the plate on Peterson's ground ball to shortstop.

 

The tie was short-lived, however, as Northern Colorado went ahead to stay in the bottom half of the inning. Berge singled with one out. And after Roche recorded the second out, Berggren tripled to center field, sending Berge home with the go-ahead run. Casey Coy followed with another two-out RBI, singling up the middle to plate Berggren with an insurance run.

 

Tomczyk drew a walk with two outs in the sixth inning, but he was NJIT's only baserunner the rest of the way in game one.

 

The second game was controlled by the pitchers, as the teams played nine innings in an hour and 51 minutes. NJIT's sophomore LHP Tripp Davis pitched his team-leading fourth complete game of the year and he was strong, allowing 8 hits and 4 runs (2 earned), with 6 strikeouts and a walk.

 

Davis (3-5) took his first Great West Conference loss after a win and a no-decision in three previous conference starts. His earned run average in the GWC is 1.85 in 34 innings. The loss at Northern Colorado was his first losing decision of any kind since a 2-1 complete-game non-conference loss on March 20 at Seton Hall.

 

Unfortunately for Davis and the Highlanders, one run allowed was too many in the face of Northern Colorado's four-hit shutout pitching from starter Joe Sawicki (3-6) and relievers Brendan Hall and Cameron Tallman.

 

Sawicki, a senior RHP who struck out 12 against the Highlanders in a 13-1 complete-game win over NJIT last May 8 in New Jersey, worked the first seven innings on Saturday, allowing two hits and striking out six, with two walks.

 

Hall, who allowed three runs in one inning of relief in Friday's series-opening 7-3 win for Northern Colorado, fared much better against the Highlanders on Saturday, allowing a hit and no runs in one inning. And Cameron Tallman, who struck out the side in the ninth inning on Friday, didn't get any strikeouts on Saturday, but worked another scoreless ninth inning, nonetheless. Tallman allowed one hit.

 

Berggren again led the Northern Colorado hitters, going 3-for-4 in game two with one run batted in. C Matt Jones was 2-for-2 with a walk and CF Bret Fanning was 1-for-3, with three runs batted in.

 

For NJIT, Caiola, the junior designated hitter, accounted for three of his teams four hits in Saturday's nightcap, as he went 3-for-3. His hits were all singles, as was the other Highlander hit by Weckerle. Caiola, who was 4-for-6 in the doubleheader, has hits in each of the last four games, going 6-for-14 in that span.

 

NJIT stranded nine baserunners in the game, including five over the last three innings. The Highlanders had runners on second and third without benefit of a hit in the seventh inning, but Sawicki, working his last inning of the day, got a strikeout and fly out to end the threat.

 

Weckerle hit a two-out single in the eighth inning and the Highlanders got an infield single by Caiola with two outs in the ninth inning and then Tyler Kapp reached base on an error, but Tallman got the last out to finish off the shutout.

 

Northern Colorado's first run, in the second inning, was unearned. Berggren singled with one out and after another out, 3B Tony Crudo doubled, with Berggren scoring on the play aided by an outfield error.

 

SS Adam Hilker led off the third inning with a triple and scored on a ground out by Fanning, making it 2-0 for the Bears. The third run, also unearned, scored in the fifth inning on a sacrifice fly for Fanning and the final tally came in the eighth inning, as Fanning hit a leadoff triple and scored on Berggren's two-out single.

 

NJIT and Northern Colorado are scheduled to close out the series with a single game on Sunday with first pitch scheduled for 1 pm (MDT).