Box score

JERSEY CITY, NJ—Saint Peter's scored three runs after two were out to break a 2-2 tie in the bottom of the eighth inning of the Peacocks' 5-2 win over visiting NJIT Saturday afternoon in the rubber game of a three-game non-conference weekend baseball series between the teams.
 
On Friday night, they split a doubleheader in Newark, with the Highlanders taking the opener, 11-0, and the Peacocks, designated as the “home” team, scoring a 5-4 walk-off win in the bottom of the 10th inning of the nightcap, which ended around 9:40 pm. The teams came back and played the series finale in a noon start on Saturday at Saint Peter's.
 
Saint Peter's, now 7-17 overall, has taken four of its last five. The Peacocks defeated Saint Joseph's in Philadelphia last Sunday and then upset 2011 Big East Conference champion Seton Hall on Tuesday, before taking two out of three against NJIT, which is 5-10 on the year.
 
The starters and pitchers of record on Saturday were teammates at Toms River North High School, where they both graduated in 2009. On this day, the winner was junior RHP Matt Mancini (2-1) who went the first 8.1 innings for Saint Peter's, allowing two runs on six hits, with seven strikeouts and no walks. The losing pitcher was Mark Leiter, Jr.  the NJIT starter who pitched 7.2 innings and was charged with five runs (four earned), on 11 hits and two walks, with eight strikeouts.
 
Saint Peter's senior RHP Anthony DeLeo allowed a hit and a walk, but was credited with his second save of the season when he left the bases loaded to end the game in the ninth inning. DeLeo's first save came in his team's 3-1 win at Seton Hall earlier in the week.
 
Sophomore RHP Matt Coughlin relieved Leiter with two men on base and two out in the bottom of the eighth and struck out the only batter he faced for the Highlanders.
 
Saint Peter's, which totaled 11 hits, got two each from five different players. One of them ,1B Chris Grimes (2-for-4) homered for the first Peacock run of the day, tying the score at 1-1 with two out in the bottom of the sixth inning.
 
It was Grimes who hit the walk-off home run to win Friday night's second game for Saint Peter's. The two homers against NJIT were the first two of the season for the Peacock senior. Grimes also doubled in the opening inning Saturday, but no runs resulted.
 
The big blow for Saint Peter's on Saturday was a two-out, two-run single for senior 2B Mike Scicutella (1-for-4) that broke a 2-2 in the bottom of the eighth and senior SS Justyn Carter (2-for-5) followed Scicutella with another RBI single to make it 5-2 for the Peacocks.
 
NJIT managed seven hits and four of them went for extra bases. For the most part, however, timely hits were lacking for the Highlanders, who managed just two runs and left the bases loaded in the ninth inning of a game they lost by three.
 
The only Highlander with more than one hit was sophomore 1B Tom Bouck, who was 2-for-4 with a double and a home run against his former team, Saint Peter's, where he played as a freshman in 2010 before transferring to NJIT and sitting out the 2011 season under NCAA rules.
 
LF Jeff Pizzi (1-for-4) tripled with two out in the fifth inning and C Bryan Bleakley (1-for-4) doubled for NJIT with one out in the ninth inning, but neither of them scored.
 
The first five innings went by in about 45 minutes as each starting pitcher allowed three hits and no runs.
 
NJIT finally broke through with a scratch run in the top of the sixth. 2B Mike Rampone (1-for-4) led off with an infield single, went to second on a sacrifice, to third on Mancini's only wild pitch of the day, and scored on a topper to third base by RF James D'Aloia (0-for-3), who upped his team-leading runs batted in total to 18.
 
The NJIT lead was short-lived, however. With two outs in the bottom of the sixth, Grimes got a ball up into the always-present strong wind at SPC's Jaroschak Field and the ball sailed over the left field fence to tie the score at 1-1.
 
The Highlanders, who made only 10 errors combined in their first 14 games, were not sharp in the field on Saturday and they made two errors on one play, allowing Saint Peter's to pull ahead in the sixth.
 
C Russ Stupienski (2-for-3) and LF Pat Farrell (2-for-4), both seniors, had followed the Grimes home run with singles. Peacock 3B Brian Koster (2-for-4) then hit a two-out slow roller to the shortstop side of second base for what looked to be an inning-ending force out. However, NJIT's Matt Weckerle was charged with two errors on the play, the first when he did not handle the roller cleanly, allowing Farrell to reach second safely ahead of Weckerle and the second miscue when Weckerle's throw to try to get Koster at first base bounced away there, allowing Stupienski to round third and score, making it 2-1, SPC.
 
The Highlanders got the run right back, however, in the next half-inning, when, with one out, Bouck, a left-handed hitter, used an inside-out swing to hit the ball into the same jet stream that had favored Grimes in the sixth inning and the ball flew over the left field fence for Bouck's team-leading third homer of the year.
 
With the score tied 2-2, both starting pitchers settled back in, as Leiter struck out two Peacocks in a scoreless bottom of the seventh and Mancini set down NJIT 1-2-3 in the top of the eighth.
 
Although there were no errors charged in SPC's three-run bottom of the eighth, crisper fielding by the Highlanders might have produced a different score.
 
Stupienski walked leading off. The next batter, Farrell, attempting a sacrifice bunt, cued a shoulder-high pop in foul territory about halfway down the third base line. But NJIT 3B Jeff Peterson couldn't make the catch and the at-bat continued. With two strikes, the bunt was off and Farrell hit a slow roller that made its way through the right side of the infield for a hit, making it runners on first and second, no one out.
 
Koster, then dropped a perfect bunt toward third base, loading the bases. Leiter got DH Brian Schroeder on a soft line out to second base, leaving the bases loaded with one out. The next batter, CF Matt Speckmann, bounced the ball toward first base, just inside the line, where Bouck fielded it for the Highlanders.
 
Instead of gambling to takie the extra seconds to step on the bag at first and then throw home for what would have to be a tag play for a double play at home, Bouck opted to go straight home and cut off the go-ahead run, throwing directly there to get the second out and leaving the bases loaded on the fielder's choice.
 
The next batter, Scicutella, then delivered the decisive two-out bases-loaded single that made it 4-2 for the Peacocks and Carter tacked on another run with his second hit of the day before Coughlin came on to strike out Zack Rawson and end the inning with the Peacocks holding a 5-2 lead.
 
Down three runs heading to the ninth inning, NJIT would load the bases, but to no avail. After an out, Bleakley ripped a double into the right center field gap, knocking Mancini out of the game for  the Peacocks.
 
DeLeo, who had seven saves as a sophomore in 2010 and five more in 2011, came on looking for his second save of the week and second save of 2012.
 
His first batter, DH DJ Roche, greeted DeLeo with a single to left center, moving Bleakley to third base and bringing the potential tying run to the plate in the person of Bouck, who bounced out to first base, unassisted, as Roche moved up to second base and Bleakley held at third. Peterson then walked to load the bases, but the threat and the game ended when DeLeo got a ground out for his 14th career save, stranding three runners.
 
NJIT will continue non-conference play this week when it travels to Siena for a single game on Wednesday at 3:30 pm in Loudonville, NY, outside of Albany. Siena, like Saint Peter's, belongs to the Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference.
 
Great West Conference play begins for the Highlanders on April 5, when they host Northern Colorado.