Box score
GRAND FORKS, ND—NJIT, which trailed early, but went ahead to stay in the sixth inning, exploded for six runs in the top of the ninth inning and finished with a 12-7 win over North Dakota in the first game of a scheduled four-game weekend Great West Conference baseball series.
The win lifts NJIT to 7-14 in the Great West Conference and to 14-31 overall, surpassing the season wins total from a year ago, when the Highlanders finished 13-44. NJIT is scheduled for seven more regular season conference games, plus the GWC Tournament, also at North Dakota, May 24 to 28. North Dakota is 4-13 in the Great West and 6-29 overall.
Mark Leiter Jr (4-2) was the winning pitcher for the Highlanders, allowing five runs total in eight innings, but just one over his final five innings of work. The sophomore right-hander finished with 8 innings, 10 hits, 2 walks and 10 strikeouts.
Leiter has fanned 81 batters in 75.2 innings on the season and he has reached double-figures for strikeouts in four of his last six starts.
Kyle Burdi, also a sophomore right-hander, pitched the ninth inning for NJIT and overcame a rocky beginning that saw him allow two runs, retiring the last three batters he faced, two on strikeouts. He finished with an inning pitched, 3 hits, 2 runs and 2 strikeouts.
The losing pitcher was the North Dakota junior RHP Jake Swift (1-6), who worked the first eight innings and allowed 12 hits and 6 runs (3 earned), with 3 strikeouts and 3 walks. Senior LHP Brandon Baumgartner pitched the ninth inning and was roughed up for six runs on four hits and two walks.
NJIT matched its season high for hits, pounding out 16 (also had 16 in 14 innings vs. Utah Valley on April 8). The first eight starters in the nine-man Highlanders batting order got hits, including a 4-for-4 day from the eighth-place hitter, freshman LF Tyler Kapp, who drove in two runs and scored two, as well.
Senior SS Matt Tomczyk continued his fine season, going 3-for-6, including his second home run of the season, a two-run shot in the big ninth inning for NJIT.
Tomczyk, who had a mini-slump over six games in five days from April 27 to May 1, has raised his team-leading season average back to .305 and is 9-for-22 (.409), with 9 runs batted in and 5 runs scored in his last five games, all GWC contests.
Junior DH Anthony Caiola who sat out the previous game (Sunday, May 8) with a strained hamstring, finished Friday's game 2-for-5 and drove in a pair of runs with a ninth inning double. Caiola has a career-best eight-game hitting streak, going 11-for-29 (.379) during the skein.
Bryan Bleakley and Teddy Bickert added two hits apiece for the Highlanders, while Jeff Peterson drove home two runs on one hit. Matt Weckerle tripled on his only hit of the day, moving into a tie for the team lead with DJ Roche at three triples for the season.
For his part, Roche was 1-for-3 and drove in a run, his team-best 32nd RBI of the season and the second-highest total for NJIT in Division I competition, trailing only Kwesi Mitchell's 44 RBI in 2007.
North Dakota, which came into the game batting .357 as a team over the last 10 games and averaging 9.6 runs per game in that span, knocked out 13 hits of its own on Friday, led by a 3-for-5 day from sophomore 2B Kris Kwak, who hit his team-leading fifth home run to lead off the eighth inning after doubling earlier. He drove in two runs.
DH Andy Sadler, LF Josh Ray, and 3B Kyle Bolander all chipped in two hits apiece for the Fighting Sioux. Bolander tied Kwak as the UND RBI leader for the day, knocking home two runs.
North Dakota took an early lead with a pair of runs in the bottom of the first inning, but NJIT got a run back in the top of the second and pushed ahead with a pair of runs in the top of the third. However, the Fighting Sioux reclaimed the lead, 4-3, with two runs in the bottom of the third.
Like many pitchers before him, Leiter has games where he is most vulnerable in the early going, but then settles down and becomes much more difficult to hit the rest of the day. Friday's was one of those games.
After allowing four runs on seven hits in the first three innings, he put up four straight zeros and allowed just three hits the rest of the way, one of which came in the eighth inning, when he allowed his fifth and final run on Kwak's leadoff homer.
With Leiter locking down the home team, his teammates scored a run in the fifth inning to tie the score at four runs apiece and then went ahead on a run in the sixth. The Highlanders added another run in the eighth for a 6-4 lead before North Dakota again closed to within a run at 6-5 in the bottom half.
Then, NJIT exploded against the North Dakota reliever, Baumgartner, scoring six times in the ninth on four hits, two walks and a hit-by-pitch.
With Burdi on to pitch for NJIT, the Fighting Sioux loaded the bases in the bottom of the ninth, stringing together three straight singles to open the frame. One run scored on a balk and another scored on a wild pitch before Burdi restored order with three straight outs, ending the game by striking out the dangerous Kwak, who came into the game batting .331 and had 16 extra-base hits before adding to his total with Friday's double and homer.
Kwak and Jake Magner drove in first-inning runs to give their team the early lead, while NJIT got its first run on a wild pitch in the second inning.
The Highlanders went ahead with two unearned runs in the third inning, with both scoring on a single for Peterson, the sophomore third baseman.
The Fighting Sioux quickly reclaimed the lead on a two-run third-inning single that brought in Kwak, who had doubled, and Ray.
NJIT tied the score in the fifth, as Weckerle led off with a triple to center field and scored on Roche's sacrifice fly.
The Highlanders went ahead to stay, 5-4, with a three-hit inning in the top of the sixth. Kapp led off with a single and after an out, Tomczyk and Bickert each singled to fill the bases. Weckerle followed with a ground out to second base that allowed Kapp to score the go-ahead run.
After a scoreless seventh, Kapp got things going again in the eighth, leading off with another single. He moved to second base on a sacrifice bunt and then scored on Tomczyk's single.
North Dakota's Kwak homered to make it 6-5, but Leiter, who allowed his second walk of the game with one out, kept it there, walking off the mound with a one-run lead that would balloon to seven by the time his team finished batting in the ninth inning.
Weckerle led off the ninth for NJIT with a walk and, leading by just a run, the Highlanders played small ball and sacrificed him ahead a base to second. Then things came apart for North Dakota. Peterson took an intentional walk, bringing up the left-handed hitting Bleakley to face the left-handed pitching Baumgartner, who blew up the matchup strategy by hitting Bleakley to load the bases.
Caiola followed with his first double of the season, driving in two runs and Kapp followed Caiola with a single for two more runs. After an out, Tomczyk homered to left field, bringing the inning's run total to six and the NJIT lead to 12-5, which North Dakota trimmed by two runs before the game ended.
Friday's game was played with temperatures in the mid-40s and overcast skies. However, temperatures are expected to moderate to the low 60s on Saturday, when the teams are scheduled for a doubleheader with a 1 pm (CDT) start.
