NEWARK, NJ—Senior catcher George Carroll's two-run home run to left center field with two outs in the top of the 10th inning was the key blow for NYIT in a 7-6 10-inning win for the visiting Bears against NJIT Friday night in Great West Conference baseball at Bears and Eagles Riverfront Stadium.

Carroll, who homered for the fifth time this season and finished the game 2-for-5 (he also had a double on a fly ball that was lost in the lights), made a winner out of sophomore RHP Steve Cotov (1-2), the second NYIT pitcher, who got the victory despite allowing three runs in 2.2 inning of relief. Sophomore Ryan Dillabough earned his fourth save for the Bears by retiring his only batter for the last out of the game.

NJIT, which rallied from a 5-2 seventh inning deficit to score once in the seventh and twice in the eighth to knot the score, got a run off of Cotov in the 10th, but fell short, 7-6.

The win evens NYIT's Great West Conference record at 7-7, while the Highlanders fall to 4-13 in conference play. NJIT has played six extra-inning games in the Great West and is 2-4 in those games. NYIT is 11-23 overall, while the Highlanders drop to 11-30, including 4-6 in extra-inning games.

The losing pitcher for NJIT in Friday's first game of a scheduled four-game GWC weekend series was senior RHP John Prestano (1-1), who pitched the last 3.1 innings and allowed the two runs on Carroll's decisive home run. Prestano yielded four hits.

Both starters pitched well, but neither had a hand in the decision. NYIT's freshman RHP John Duggan, worked seven full innings and handed Cotov a 5-3 lead to begin the eighth inning. Duggan gave up six hits and struck out seven, with five walks. 

NJIT starter Mark Leiter Jr pitched 6.2 innings and allowed five runs (two earned) on six hits and five walks (one intentional), while striking out 10.

The visiting Bears finished with 10 hits, as four players collected two each. Carroll, DH Ali Rodriguez, and SS Ryan Campbell were all 2-for-5, while 3B Rob Cafiero was 2-for-4. Cafiero had a big two-out single to drive in two runs in NYIT's four-run seventh inning and CF Jerry Smith (1-for-3) also joined Carroll and Cafiero with two runs batted in each. Smith homered to lead off the second inning for the first run of the game and later walked with the bases loaded in the big seventh inning.

NJIT had 10 hits, all singles, with eight of the nine men in the starting batting order collecting hits. CF Teddy Bickert was 2-for-6 and RF Matt Weckerle was 2-for-5 to lead the offense. Senior SS Matt Tomczyk was 1-for-3, plus a sacrifice fly, to drive home a team-best two runs.

After Leiter retired the Bears 1-2-3 to open the game, the Highlanders loaded the bases with no one out on a walk and two hits. But Duggan escaped the bottom of the first inning unharmed, retiring the next three batters on a strikeout, a fly out to shallow left field and a line drive by Bryan Bleakley for the third out right at the third baseman.

Having escaped the jam, NYIT struck for the game's first run in the next half-inning, as Smith, the senior center fielder led off the second with a home run to left field.

After leaving five runners on base through the first four innings, NJIT finally broke through in the fifth. Vincent Del Vecchio walked leading off and the next batter, Tomczyk, was hit by a pitch.

After a strikeout, Matt Weckerle dunked a soft single beyond the infield and when the charging left fielder over ran the ball, Del Vecchio, who was holding at third base, raced home with the tying run. After another out, Jeff Peterson delivered a sharp single that scored Tomczyk from second base with the go-ahead run.

NYIT loaded the bases with one out in the top of the sixth inning, but just as his counterpart worked out of a bases-loaded jam in the first inning, Leiter did the same, inducing a comebacker that resulted in a force at home and then closing the door completely with a strikeout looking.

However, there would be no more escapes for Leiter, who was extremely unlucky in the seventh inning, when NYIT scored four times (three unearned). In addition to NJIT's only error of the game, two of the Bears' three hits in the frame would have been outs under most circumstances, but not this night.

Leiter struck out the first batter and then induced the next one, Carroll, to hit a fly ball that appeared to get lost in the stadium lights. Weckerle, the NJIT right fielder, broke back only to have the ball land 10 feet from where he was waiting as Carroll hustled into second base for the double.

The next batter, Rob Loftus, hit a dribbler to Leiter's left, but the ball kicked off the pitcher's foot when he tried to field it and Loftus was safe on the error. Bad luck reared its head again, when Rodriguez hit what was looking like a double-play ground ball to shortstop all the way until it took a last-second bad high hop nearly over Tomczyk's head for an RBI hit, with Carroll scoring the tying run.

Leiter got the second out and Effrey Valdez, batting .413 coming into the game, was walked intentionally to fill the bases. However, loading the bases cost the Highlanders a run when Leiter walked Smith, forcing in NYIT's third run. The next batter, Cafiero, singled hard into left field, bringing home two runs and giving the Bears a 5-2 bulge and chasing Leiter from the game. Prestano entered from the bullpen and got the third out.

NJIT got back one of the runs in the bottom of the seventh inning, as Bickert stroked a one-out single, moved up to second on a wild pitch, to third on the second out of the inning and then scored on Duggan's second wild pitch of the inning.

The Highlanders scored twice in the bottom of the eighth to tie.

Bleakley worked out a walk to start. Anthony Caiola's ball up the middle was snagged by sprawling second baseman Steve McNamara, who flipped from his belly to force out Bleakley at second base. The next two batters, Tyler Kapp and Vincent Del Vecchio, hit singles and the baserunners went from first to third each time. Caiola also scored on Del Vecchio's single as Kapp went to third, where he was in position to score the tying run on Tomczyk's one-out sacrifice fly to right field.

Neither team scored in the ninth inning before Carroll's two-run blast put his team ahead to stay in the 10th.

NJIT came back for a run in the bottom half, as Caiola singled leading off, took second on defensive indifference with two outs and scored on Tomczyk's single to right. Dillabough then entered to record the one-out save.

The teams are scheduled to continue the series with a doubleheader on Saturday, starting at 2 pm, at Bears and Eagles Riverfront Stadium. The 2 pm start time is a change from the previously published 1 pm.