Box score
GRAND FORKS, ND—NYIT freshman right-handed pitcher Marcos Perez tossed a complete-game three-hitter against NJIT, as the Bears edged the Highlanders, 3-2, in the opening round of the 2011 Great West Conference Baseball Tournament Tuesday afternoon on Kraft Field at the University of North Dakota.
Perez (5-4) gave up two runs on two hits in the second inning and then blanked the Highlanders the rest of the way, allowing no runs and only a ninth-inning double as a subsequent hit. He allowed some baserunners, as NJIT accumulated seven walks, but the Highlanders couldn't get anything accomplished with just one hit over the last seven innings.
The losing pitcher was NJIT sophomore right-hander Mark Leiter Jr (5-3), who yielded 10 hits and three walks, but was charged with just two earned runs and did not become the pitcher of record on the losing side until the Bears broke a 2-2 tie with an unearned run in the bottom of the seventh inning.
Leiter struck out eight Bears, raising his season total to 103, 41 more than the old school Division I record of 62 set in 2008 by Matt Melody. The overall school record is 105, set by NJIT Hall of Famer Dan MacDonald in 1983, when the Highlanders were a Division III program.
The win for NYIT, seeded fourth in the tournament, sends the Bears (18-30) into Wednesday's winner's bracket. NJIT (19-34), the fifth seed, drops into the losers' bracket.
The Highlanders will take on eighth-seeded Chicago State (9-40) on Wednesday at 10 am (CDT). The Cougars lost their first-round game to regular season champion Utah Valley by a score of 13-3 in eight innings. The winner will continue in the tournament, while the loser will be the first to go home.
NYIT got on the board first on Tuesday, scoring a run in the bottom of the first inning, but NJIT pushed ahead in the next half-inning, getting two runs on its first two hits in the top of the second. The Highlander lead didn't hold up much longer than the first Bear lead and NYIT drew even with a run in the bottom of the third.
The Bears finally broke the stalemate with their third run, which came on a sacrifice fly after a steal and throwing error on the steal play, in the bottom of the seventh inning.
Batters two through eight in the NYIT batting order all got at least one hit and 2011 Great West Conference Player of the Year, senior 1B Effrey Valdez led the way, going 3-for-3, including a double that set the stage for his team's run in the opening inning. Freshman SS Rob Cafiero, whose sacrifice fly drove in the winning run, finished 2-for-3 and drove in two of his team's runs. He had homered, his fifth of the season, to tie the score in the third inning.
The other run for the Bears was driven in by senior LF Eric Cos (1-for-4), who singled in the first inning to knock in the first marker of the contest.
NJIT's three hits came from three different men. Jeff Peterson doubled to drive in the first Highlander run and Anthony Caiola singled later in the inning, bringing home Peterson with one out. Vincent Del Vecchio's ninth-inning double was the only NJIT hit the rest of the way.
NYIT got on the board in the opening inning with a two-out rally. Valdez doubled over the right fielder's head and Jerry Smith followed with an infield single to shortstop that was a diving play by NJIT's Matt Tomczyk, forcing Valdez to hold at third base. However, Cos, who had one at-bat in the four-game series against the Highlanders in the four-game regular season series in early May, came through with a run-scoring single to left field.
The Highlanders did all their scoring in the second inning. DJ Roche led off with a walk and quickly scored when Peterson's hitl eluded a diving try by the Bears left fielder, as Peterson was credited with a double. After an out, Caiola hit a line drive single to center field, driving in Peterson. NJIT got another baserunner with one out on a walk to Tyler Kapp, but there were no more hits forthcoming and the Highlanders missed out on a chance to extend their lead.
The Highlanders got two more men on base in the top of the third, but nothing came of it and NYIT pulled even in the bottom of the inning on Cafiero's home run off the Kraft Field scoreboard 375 feet away in left center field.
NJIT picked up two more baserunners in the top of the fourth on a pair of two out walks, but again missed out on a big hit, any hit, stranding two runners for a third consecutive inning.
The Highlanders got one runner each in the fifth and sixth innings, but Perez, who was a hard-luck loser vs. NJIT in the regular season (2-0 in seven innings on May 7) got stronger, getting 1-2-3 innings in the seventh and eighth, before allowing Del Vecchio's double with one out in the ninth, but then securing the win on two fly ball outs.
The decisive run was unearned. After Leiter opened the bottom of the seventh inning with his 100th strikeout of the season, DH Ali Rodriguez reached on a walk. The Great West Conference stolen base leader then swiped his 18th bag of the season and went ahead to third base when the throw from catcher went astray for the only NJIT error of the game. The next batter, Cafiero flied out to right field, bringing in Rodriguez with what proved to be the game-winner.
