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GRAND FORKS, ND—The 2011 Great West Conference Baseball Tournament is scheduled to get underway on Tuesday, with NJIT, seeded fifth, slated to play the second game of the day against fourth-seeded NYIT with first pitch due at 1 pm (CDT) on the University of North Dakota's Kraft Memorial Field.
NJIT (19-33 overall, 12-16 Great West) split its four-game regular-season series against NYIT (17-30 overall, 13-12 Great West) when the teams met May 6 and 7 (doubleheader) in Newark and May 8 in Old Westbury, NY.
The Bears won the opening game in 10 innings, 7-6, and the Highlanders swept the Saturday doubleheader, 2-0 and 10-9. Heading to Long Island for Sunday's game, NYIT came out on top, 14-6, but the wide margin of victory is a bit deceptive, as the Bears broke open a 6-5 game with eight runs in the bottom of the seventh against three Highlander relievers.
With a team batting average of .300, NYIT has some of the most dangerous hitters in the Great West, led by 2011 Great West Player of the Year senior 1B Effrey Valdez, who is batting .438, 45 points ahead of the second-ranked batter, Chris Benson of Utah Valley (.393). Valdez also has 13 home runs and 39 RBI overall.
Sophomore DH Ali Rodriguez is batting .356 and mixes good pop (11 extra-base hits) with speed (GWC-best 17-for-20 on stolen bases). Senior Jerry Smith is batting .327 and is an excellent defensive center fielder and was voted all-GWC 2nd-team, earning repeat all-conference honors.
The Bears have been without their top pitcher, Tom Cardona, since late April, but have gotten good years from sophomore swingman Ryan Dillabough (4-4, 4.31 ERA, 5 saves, 18 G, 6 GS), freshman John Duggan (3-4, 5.56 ERA), and freshman Marcos Perez (4-4, 5.74 ERA). Dillabough had a hand in both NYIT wins over the Highlanders, recording a save and a win and was a 1st-team all-GWC honoree as a relief pitcher.
The Highlanders, who were 8-3 in their last 11 regular season games, will rely on a top trio of sophomore starting pitchers who match up well with any similar group in the conference.
LHP Tripp Davis and RHP Mark Leiter Jr are in their second seasons at the top of the NJIT rotation and both have made excellent strides this season to emerge as quality conference-level Division I pitchers. RHP DJ Roche, who spent most of his freshman year as a reliever, has emerged in conference play as a formidable starting pitcher, as well being the team's top run producer as a hitter.
Davis (5-6, team-best 3.84 ERA) was named to the all-GWC first team and to the New Jersey College Baseball Association all-state Division I second team. He leads the Highlanders in innings pitched (98.1), games started (14) and complete games (5). He has held the opposition under four runs in 10 of his starts.
Leiter (5-2, 5.01 ERA), voted all-conference second team, leads the Great West in strikeouts, having fanned 95 in 82.2 innings overall (Tripp Davis is second with 77). Leiter set a new NJIT Division I record for strikeouts in a game with 13 vs. Utah Valley, which went on to win the GWC regular season crown, and then broke the record in his last start, striking out 14 in seven innings against Chicago State.
In conference play only, Leiter boasts a team-leading 3.31 ERA and is 4-1, with 67 strikeouts in 51.2 innings (11.7 Ks/9 IP). He reached double-figure strikeout totals in five of his seven conference starts.
Roche (2-4, 5.14 ERA in 10 games, 7 starts) was voted to the all-GWC first team and the NJCBA all-state Division I first team as a utility player. In conference play, he started in all seven GWC series and was 2-3 with a 4.12 ERA. He had two complete games, including a 7-inning, 5-hit, 10-strikeout shutout against the Highlanders' first-round tournament opponent, NYIT. In his first start, he held Utah Valley scoreless on five hits in nine innings with eight strikeouts in a game NJIT lost 2-0 in 11 innings.
Roche, who also catches and plays the outfield, is a big threat at plate, having 24 extra-base hits, including a school-record 17 doubles, plus four home runs. His 42 runs batted in are tied for second all-time for a season at NJIT, trailing only Kwesi Mitchell's record 44 from 2007, done in the first Division I season for the program. His overall batting average is .280, fourth-best on the team.
The batting leader is senior shortstop and captain Matt Tomczyk, who was voted to the NJCBA all-state first team by the eight Division I coaches in the Garden State. A walk-on as a freshman, Tomczyk has had one of the finest all-around senior years in program history, batting .322, with a .418 on-base percentage in the vital leadoff spot in the order.
Tomczyk's 65 hits are second in program history behind Teddy Bickert's record 66 in 2010 and Tomcyk's 40 runs are second in NJIT's five-year Division I history behind Mitchell's 42 in 2007. The senior captain has 12 doubles, a triple and four home runs while driving in 25 runs (third on the team). He has played excellent defense at shortstop, making only 11 errors in 238 chances.
Freshman right fielder Matt Weckerle and junior catcher/first baseman Bryan Bleakley are coming on strong.
Weckerle is second on the team with a .285 average and has 13 extra-base hits, 32 runs scored (third on the team) and 21 RBI. He batted .340 in 26 conference games, a reflection of his strong finish that saw rebound from going 2-for-26 in his first eight college games and not break .200 until his 19th college game. He brings a 14-game hitting streak into the GWC Tournament.
Bleakley, too, was struggling early, batting under .200 on April 10, after posting a strong 2010 season, with 16 doubles, six homers, 29 RBI and .319 average. But he has hit safely in 23 of the 28 games since April 10. In a smaller sample, he has hits in 18 of the last 20 games. His season average stands at .281 (third on the team), with a team-best five home runs, plus nine doubles and 19 RBI. He batted .303 in 28 conference games.
Another who finished up strong was sophomore center fielder Teddy Bickert, who batted close to .300 in conference play and finished the regular season at .264 after entering May with an average more than 20 points lower. Bickert had 11 extra-base hits and was second to Tomczyk in runs scored, with 34. His early troubles defied the numbers from a strong freshman season, when he batted a team-leading .322 with a school-record 66 hits.
Jeff Peterson, the sophomore third baseman checks in with a solid .272 and his 28 runs batted in are second on the team. He has 12 extra-base hits, plus 12 two-out runs batted in, second only to Roche's 16.
The rest of the Day One schedule is (“home” team listed second):
10 am--#8 Chicago State (4-19 GWC; 9-39) vs. #1 Utah Valley (22-2 GWC; 30-21)
4 pm--#6 Texas-Pan American (10-19 GWC; 21-30) vs. #3 Houston Baptist (16-12 GWC; 18-28)
7 pm--#7 North Dakota (7-17 GWC; 10-33) vs. #2 Northern Colorado (19-7 GWC; 23-30)
The format is double elimination with game times (all approximate CDT, except for the first game of the day) at 10 am, 1 pm, 4 pm and 7 pm the first two days; 1 pm, 4 pm, and 7 pm on Thursday; 4 pm and 7 pm on Friday; and, 4 pm and 7 pm (if necessary) on Saturday.
Wednesday's first two games will be the start of the losers' bracket with two teams going home when they lose, while the second two games of the day will be winners' bracket contests.
The tournament will continue with as many as 15 total games until seven of the eight teams that began have two losses, with the remaining team emerging as champion.
Utah Valley is the team to beat
Utah Valley is the only baseball champion the Great West Conference has known to date. The Wolverines were regular season and postseason champions in 2010, the first year of conference play and they repeated as regular season champ this year. Between the two regular seasons and last year's conference tournament, Utah Valley is an overwhelming 48-4 in regular season GWC play and was 4-0 in the 2010 conference tournament.
NJIT vs, the field
In games against the other seven Great West teams this season, NJIT went 3-1 against both North Dakota and Chicago State; 2-2 against Houston Baptist, NYIT, and Texas-Pan American; and 0-4 against the two top teams in the conference, Utah Valley and Northern Colorado. It bears noting, however, that while Utah Valley has dominated conference play, its last three 2011 wins against the Highlanders were extra-inning affairs, going 11, 14, and 11 innings, respectively, and the one “regulation” game was 5-3 for the Wolverines, who broke a 3-3 tie with two runs in the ninth.
Twenty-win milestone in sight
At least one win for the Highlanders at the tournament would be their 20th of 2011, returning the program to the 20-win club for the first time since it won a record 27 as ECAC champion in 2006, NJIT's last season in Division II. That was the third straight 20-win season for the Highlanders, who have reached the plateau eight times since beginning play in 1949. NJIT had five 20-win seasons under the late Gene Schmid at the Division III level, when the team generally played 25 to 35 games a year, and three 20-win seasons under Brian Callahan from 2004 to 2006 in Division II.
