Game One Box Score

Game Two Box Score


DURHAM, NC—The NJIT baseball team opened its 2012 season with a doubleheader split against North Carolina Central Saturday afternoon at historic Durham Athletic Park, as the Highlanders dropped game one, 8-5, but bounced back to trounce the home team 15-2 in the nightcap.
 
NJIT held a 2-1 lead heading into the bottom of the fifth inning of the opening game, before the homestanding Eagles erupted for four runs and a 5-2 lead. The Highlanders got a run back in the sixth and tied the score at 5-5 with a pair of runs in the top of the eighth. However, NCCU answered with three in the bottom of the frame and then blanked NJIT in the ninth for an 8-5 win. The pitching decisions went to the bullpens, with the third and final Eagles hurler, sophomore RHP Sam Fulmer picking up the win and the third of four Highlander pitchers, sophomore RHP Joe Fasano taking the loss.
 
Junior LHP Tripp Davis started for the Highlanders and allowed five runs on 10 hits in six inning. Matt Coughlin pitched a scoreless inning, while Fasano was tagged with three runs without getting an out and Austin McAuliffe was credited with a scoreless inning pitched.
 
North Carolina Central starter Glenn Frye, a junior right-hander, went seven inning and allowed three runs on five hits. Junior LHP Michael Romano allowed NJIT to tie it up with two runs in two-thirds of an inning and the winner, Fulmer, worked 1.1 innings and did not allow a run on two hits.
 
The Highlanders never trailed the seven-inning second game, striking for three runs in the first inning. Each team scored once in the second inning and NJIT went up 7-1 with a three-run third inning. The Highlanders put the game out of reach with eight runs in the top of the sixth inning, before the Eagles picked up a lone run in the bottom half.
 
NJIT starter DJ Roche worked the first five innings and allowed one run on two hits and walk, while striking out nine in his first win of the season. A pair of freshmen followed Roche to the hill, as Mike Liegel allowed the second Eagle run and Bill VanMeerbeke pitched a 1-2-3 inning to close out the win.
 
In the opening game, NJIT got a total of nine hits, paced by two hits apiece for sophomore 3B Matt Weckerle and Roche, who was starting in right field before pitching game two. Weckerle and fifth-year senior James D'Aloia, who missed all last season with a knee injury, hit home runs for the Highlanders in the first game. Roche hit a two-out, two-run single in the top of the eighth to pull NJIT even at 5-5.
 
Senior DH Anthony Wilson led the Eagles with three hits in the opener and four others had two hits each, including sophomore 3B Troy Marrow, who was 2-for-3 and drove in four runs. Wilson had the game's only triple and Marrow hit one of three doubles for NCCU.
 
In the second game, the Highlanders had 11 hits, including three doubles, D'Aloia's second home run of the day and the first college homer for freshman CF Ed Charlton. NJIT also collected seven walks, two hit-by-pitch and NC Central made four errors.
 
Five NJIT players piled up two hits apiece, including D'Aloia (2-for-3 in the game, 3-for-6 in the doubleheader), Charlton (2-for-4), freshman 2B Mike Rampone (2-for-4), junior 3B Jeff Peterson (2-for-4), and senior C Bryan Bleakley (2-for-4).
 
D'Aloia and Bleakley, who doubled in each game of the twinbill, each drove in four runs in the NJIT win and Charlton brought home two.
 
Four different players got one hit apiece for the Eagles in the nightcap. Three were singles, and sophomore Tyson Simpson, Jr., had a double, driving in a run in the second inning.
 
The Highlanders got off on the right foot after losing the opener, as Rampone belted a one-out double in the first inning of game two. After a strikeout, 1B Tom Bouck, a sophomore transfer playing his first games for NJIT, walked, and D'Aloia followed with a home run, his second of the day and fifth in his career.
 
Charlton's home run was a two-out solo shot in the second and Bleakley hit a two-run double to key the three-run third inning. Bleakley drove in two more runs with a single in NJIT's eight-run sixth inning that including four hits, three North Carolina Central errors, two walks, and a hit-by-pitch.
 
Saturday's split left North Carolina Central with a 1-4 record, while NJIT is 1-1. The teams are set to play a single game on Sunday at 1 pm.
 
Durham Athletic Park, home of minor league baseball from 1926 to 2002, was the primary setting of the famous 1988 motion picture Bull Durham and is now used as the home field for North Carolina Central baseball, among other things. The AAA minor league Durham Bulls play in a newer park in town, but still play occasional special games in the old ballpark.