Box score
GRAND FORKS, ND—NJIT won Sunday's Great West Conference baseball series finale at North Dakota, 11-9, giving the Highlanders three victories in the four-game weekend set.
NJIT, which scored at least 11 runs in all three of its wins over North Dakota is 9-15 in the Great West Conference with four regular season league games remaining on the schedule. North Dakota is 5-15 in the Great West and 7-31 overall.
Sunday's win also raised the rebuilding Highlanders' overall record to 16-32, as they have reached the highest wins total in five years of Division I competition.
NJIT, which ended its tenure at the Division II level by winning the 2006 ECAC championship posted a 15-28 mark in 2007, its first season of Division I competition, playing as an Independent. The wins totals dropped off to single digits each of the next two years before moving up to 13 in 2010. The 2011 Highlanders can add to their current total with four games left in the regular season and at least two in the GWC Tournament that will be played in North Dakota beginning on May 24.
The 3-1 series win for NJIT over North Dakota was the first time the Highlanders have won a 2011 Great West series. They had gone 2-2 in series against Texas-Pan American, Houston Baptist, and NYIT, while losing four times each to the top two teams in the conference, defending champ Utah Valley and second-place Northern Colorado. The last three games in the UVU series, although all defeats, went at least 11 innings each.
Sunday's win marked some firsts for the NJIT pitchers involved in the decision, as sophomore LHP Austin McAuliffe picked up his first win of the season after starting and allowing 5 runs in 7 innings. The sophomore (1-6), who won once as a freshman in 2010, yielded 9 hits and a walk, while striking out two on Sunday.
The first two NJIT relievers ran into difficulty, allowing North Dakota to close an 11-5 deficit to 11-9 with no one out in the ninth inning. But RHP Matt Coughlin came in and closed the door after UND had scored on a leadoff homer and put another man on with a walk. The big freshman retired all three batters he faced to pick up the first save of his college career. Coughlin had also pitched a scoreless ninth inning on Friday when NJIT won, 11-5.
North Dakota used four pitchers and the loss went to the starter, freshman LHP Zach Ransom (1-2), who allowed 6 runs in 3.2 innings. Ransom had pitched in relief in Saturday's win by NJIT in the first game of a doubleheader.
The next Sunday pitcher, junior RHP Cory Baker, also pitched on Saturday, when he earned a save with 1.1 innings of scoreless relief in UND's 6-3 Game Two win. Baker was called on for four more innings on Sunday and allowed 5 runs (4 earned). The fourth Fighting Sioux pitcher on Sunday, senior Derek Biermaier, pitched the last 1.1 innings without allowing a hit or a run.
The Highlanders got hitting all series from throughout the lineup against North Dakota, as NJIT batted .360 as a team, with 15 extra-base hits and seven different men generated at least five hits in the four-game set.
On Sunday, the Highlanders pounded out 14 hits, including two doubles, a triple, and the second home run of the season for sophomore 3B Jeff Peterson.
Freshman RF Matt Weckerle finished the day 4-for-5, including a double and drove in three runs. Weckerle, who was 0-for-13 in his first four college games and was batting under .200 as late as April 3, has raised his average steadily to its current .274, a new season-high for the rookie.
Also at a new personal season-high (.273), is sophomore CF Teddy Bickert, who was 3-for-5 on Sunday, with three RBI, as well. Bickert, who led the 2010 Highlanders with a .322 average, started slowly in 2011 and was batting an even .100 at the end of March. He got into the .200s in early April, but he didn't take off until his current six-game hitting streak that has seen him go 13-for-27 and raise his overall average from .237 to .273.
In addition to Bickert and Weckerle, who bat second and third in the NJIT order, respectively, the Highlanders got another big day from senior leadoff man Matt Tomczyk, who was 2-for-4, with two runs scored and an RBI.
One of Tomczyk's hits was a triple and he finished the North Dakota series 10-for-20, with the triple, 3 home runs, 6 runs scored and 7 runs batted in. He also handled 20 chances in the field without an error. His season average is a team-best .319 and with 22 walks and 9 hit-by-pitch, he sports a terrific .412 on-base percentage batting in the top spot.
Opening their lineup with Tomczyk, Bickert, and Weckerle, the Highlanders got a combined 9-for-14, including two doubles and a triple, with 6 runs and 7 RBI from the top three spots in the order on Sunday.
Freshman Tyler Kapp, batting eighth, also had a multi-hit day, going 2-for-5 and scoring twice.
North Dakota also collected 14 hits, including two doubles, a triple and two home runs. The Fighting Sioux had two hits each from five different men, including 1B Jake Magner (2-for-5), whose hits were a home run and a double.
Magner batted third and the two men who preceded him in the order, CF Andy Sadler (2-for-4) and SS Ryan Gerber (2-for-5) each got two hits, so the first three men in the UND order combined to go 6-for-14. Farther down the order, 3B Kyle Bolander got two hits, one of which was a double, and DH Craig Dolmage was 2-for-4, including his fourth homer of the season.
North Dakota got a run in the first inning, but NJIT took charge with four runs in the third inning and three more in the fourth, for a 7-1 lead. The home team got back three runs in the bottom of the fourth, but trailed by at least three until the ninth inning.
The teams traded single runs in the sixth and another couple of three-spots in the eighth, before Magner's leadoff homer in the bottom of the ninth trimmed the Highlander lead to 11-9.
Gerber and Magner hit back-to-back doubles for the first run of the game and the score stood at 1-0 when the Highlanders plated four runs in the third inning. Bickert and Weckerle hit consecutive doubles for the first tally and Weckerle scored on a single for DJ Roche, who raised his season RBI total to 37. Roche later trotted home on Peterson's two-out homer to left field.
The Highlanders added three more runs in the next inning, as Bickert stroked a run-scoring single and later scored himself on Weckerle's two-run double.
The Fighting Sioux answered with a three-run, four-hit bottom of the fourth inning that began with a triple for Josh Ray, who scored on an infield single. The next run scored on a wild pitch and the third came home on an infield out.
NJIT's sixth-inning run also scored on an infield out, as Kapp, who had singled to open the inning, crossed the plate on Bickert's grounder to shortstop. Dolmage hit a two-out homer for the Fighting Sioux run in the bottom half.
In the eighth inning, Tomczyk tripled home Kapp with the first run and then Tomczyk scored on a single for Bickert, who later scored the third run on a UND error.
Facing the NJIT bullpen and trailing 11-5, North Dakota got three runs and four hits in the bottom of the eighth inning, as Bolander doubled in the first run and was one of two men to score on a single by pinch hitter Seth Means.
After another single brought the potential tying run to the plate with two out, Kyle Burdi, the third Highlander pitcher, came on to end the inning with the score at 11-8.
However, Burdi, who leads NJIT with 17 relief appearances, gave up the leadoff homer to Magner and then walked Ray, prompting the call for Coughlin, who got a ground out, a foul out, and a fly out to end the game.
NJIT is scheduled to wrap up regular season play with a home Great West Conference series against Chicago State. With both schools having completed classes and exams, the four-game series is slated to begin on Thursday with a single game, with first pitch scheduled for 6 pm at Bears and Eagles Riverfront Stadium.
