Game one box score

Game two box score

DOVER, DE—NJIT swept a non-conference baseball doubleheader at Delaware State Sunday afternoon, taking the Hornets 18-4 in the nine-inning opening game and then 4-2 in a late comeback in the seven-inning nightcap at Soldier Field on the DSU campus.

The Highlanders pounded out a season-high 23 hits in the opener and then used a two-out-bases-empty rally, capped by a grand slam for sophomore Matt Weckerle to take the nightcap.
 
The sweep lifts the Highlanders to 4-2 on the season, while Delaware State, the second-place team in the Mid-Eastern Athletic Conference in 2011, drops to 6-6 in 2012. The Hornets won Friday's opening game in the series, 3-2 in 10 innings, before the NJIT sweep on Sunday.
 
According to records on file at the NCAA Statistics Service (6 seasons missing), this season's 4-2 record is NJIT's best recorded six-game start in 30 years, going back to when the 1982 Highlanders began the season at 4-2 under the late Gene Schmid, an NJIT Hall of Famer.
 
The Highlanders, who played in NCAA Division III under Coach Schmid, had numerous great seasons under his direction. They also became a championship-level team later at the Division II level under Coach Brian Callahan, winning as many as 27 games (school-record) as ECAC Division II champions in 2006.
 
But even the good NJIT teams tended to start slowly in the years since the 1982 team, which finished at 20-6, opened at 4-2 (note: the NCAA archives are missing scores from the 1983, 1991, 1994, 1997, 1998, and 2000 seasons). The 2-4 records to begin both 2010 and 2011 were the previous best starts for the Highlanders since they began Division I competition with the 2007 season.
 
In Saturday's opene,r junior RHP Mark Leiter, Jr. picked up his second win in as many starts with 6 innings, 4 hits, 2 runs (1 earned), 5 walks and 5 strikeouts, followed by a strong two innings from freshman RHP Bill VanMeerbeke, and then junior RHP Kyle Burdi finished.
 
VanMeerbeke, who didn't allow a hit or a run in his one-inning college debut last weekend, worked two innings in Sunday's 18-4 opening game win, allowing a hit, but no runs or walks, while fanning three Hornets. Burdi gave up two runs in the ninth.
 
Junior RHP Elliott Gardner, the first of four Delaware State pitchers, took the loss, falling to 1-2 on the year. He allowed five runs in three innings, while his three relievers combined to yield 13 runs in six innings.
 
At the plate, the Highlanders belted out a season-high 23 hits to go with their season-high 18 runs (topping the 16 hits and 17 runs they posted last Sunday at North Carolina Central). NJIT scored at least one run in eight of the nine innings (no runs in the fifth), with five in the sixth and four in the eighth.
 
In the 18-4 win at Delaware State, four different Highlanders drove in three runs apiece, including 1B Tom Bouck, who was 5-for-7, with five runs scored, a double, and a home run. LF James D'Aloia continued his torrid start, going 4-for-5, with a double, a triple, and three runs scored along with the three RBI.
 
Neither Bouck nor D'Aloia played for NJIT in 2011. Bouck (10 runs batted in over six games), was sitting out under NCAA transfer rules after coming over from Saint Peter's, where he had played in 2010. And D'Aloia, a fifth-year senior, missed all last year recovering from surgery on an injury sustained in warmups before the first game of the 2011 season. He is batting .500 (11-22) and has a team-leading 11 RBI.
 
Also driving in three runs was designated hitter DJ Roche, who was 2-for-5, both hits doubles and freshman CF Ed Charlton knocked home three with a 4-for-6 game.
 
Roche, NJIT's RBI leader with 44 last year, had been off to a slow start at the plate in 2012, but his 3-for-8 in Sunday's doubleheader raised his average in the young season to .250 and upped his runs batted in total to four.
 
Charlton, named area Player of the Year by two South Jersey newspapers and first-team all-state for all groups by The Star-Ledger, also had a bit of a slow start in the small sample, going 2-for-15 in opening four games. But he was 5-for-9 in Sunday's twinbill, upping his average from .133 to .292 in one day.
 
The Highlanders finished Sunday's opening game with six doubles, a triple, and two home runs. Freshman 2B Mike Rampone was 2-for-6, including his first college home run, while senior Anthony Caiola came off the bench for two hits, including a double.
 
The only extra-base hit among DSU's seven hits overall was a two-run home run for CF Troy Drummond in the bottom of the ninth inning. Drummond (2-for-5) was the only Hornet with more than one hit.
 
The seven-inning nightcap was much more difficult for the Highlanders, who entered the seventh inning trailing, 2-0, despite a sterling performance for Roche, who finished with a complete-game five-hitter, striking out 10 and walking one. Roche (2-0) has an ERA in his two starts of 2.25, with 19 strikeouts in 12 innings.
 
NJIT rallied for four runs after two were out in the top of the seventh and final inning, as the only Delaware State error of the game prolonged the game and opened the door for four unearned runs, all of which came home on a grand slam for sophomore Matt Weckerle. The homer was the second of the season for Weckerle, who was 2-for-6 in the opener and 1-for-3 in the nightcap. Weckerle had 10 runs batted in for the season.
 
The hard-luck loser for Delaware State was sophomore RHP Matt McClain, who fell to 0-2 despite not allowing an earned run in a seven-inning complete-game effort. He allowed seven hits—two in the fateful top of the seventh—without a walk to go with four strikeouts.
 
In addition to Weckerle's winning slam, the Highlanders got a double apiece from Charlton and senior C Bryan Bleakley among their seven hits. 2B JP Frey had a fifth-inning double for Delaware State's only extra-base hit. C Eddie Sorondo singled in the sixth inning to drive in both DSU runs.
 
The Hornets, hitless through four innings, got the double from Frey in the fifth to break up Roche's no-hit bid and then they strung together four straight singles to open the sixth, capped by Sorondo's two-run knock. Roche then struck out the next three DSU batters to extinguish the rally in the sixth and he closed the win with a 1-2-3 seventh.
 
NJIT, which couldn't score despite getting one hit each in the second inning through the sixth inning, went to the brink of defeat in top of the seventh.
 
The first two Highlander batters made outs when the speedy Charlton reached on a two-out infield throwing error. Rampone (2-for-4 in Game 2; 4-for-10 on the day; .375 in five games to open his rookie season) then singled up the middle. Jeff Pizzi, the next batter, took one for the team, loading the bases on a hit by pitch on an 0-2 count. Weckerle then emptied the bases on his grand slam to right field before DSU's McClain finally got the elusive third out.
 
Next up for the Highlanders is another trip south, this time to Clinton, SC, for a three-game set at Presbyterian. That series begins with an 11 am doubleheader on Saturday, followed by a 1 pm single game on Sunday. On Wednesday, March 14, the Highlanders will take on Wake Forest in a 4 pm game in Winston-Salem, NC.