Box score

HOUSTON—The NJIT baseball team continued its strong start in Great West Conference play with a 10-3 win Sunday afternoon at Houston Baptist, pushing the Highlanders to a 6-2 GWC won-lost record after the first two conference weekends.
 
The Highlanders, 8-2 in their last 10 games overall, have taken three of four games in each of their first two Great West Conference series and are now 13-14 overall. Houston Baptist, which had swept its opening GWC series last weekend, drops to 5-3 in the conference, a game behind the Highlanders, and to 13-19 overall. Before taking on the Highlanders, HBU had won eight of its previous 11, including a marquee victory over Kansas.
 
NJIT has scored at least seven runs in five of its six conference wins and the Highlanders had another strong showing at the plate on Sunday, with 10 runs and 13 hits, including a home run and two doubles.
 
But the brightest news may have come from freshman right-hander Bill VanMeerbeke, who earned his first college victory in his first conference start (second overall). The rookie, who has been anywhere from solid to terrific in seven relief appearances and had a solid non-conference start at Hartford on March 31, went seven-plus innings on Sunday at Houston Baptist, allowing the Huskies three runs on seven hits, with three strikeouts and a walk.
 
NJIT coach Mike Cole knew coming into this season that he was in good shape for conference play with three junior starting pitchers who received all-Great West Conference honors in 2011. Tripp Davis was all-GWC 1st team, Mark Leiter, Jr. was 2nd-team all-GWC, and DJ Roche was all-GWC 1st team as a utility player.
 
However, the Great West is unusual in that it plays four games in a weekend series when nearly every other Division I conference plays just three games, a recognition that it's difficult, even in the biggest of big-time conferences,  to find four “conference” starting pitchers.
 
For many teams in the Great West, the fourth game of each series tends to be an adventure when it comes to starting pitching. The early returns on VanMeerbeke are encouraging for NJIT. His earned run average is 3.52 and he has 24 strikeouts against just six walks in 30.2 innings. Opposing batters are hitting just .225 against him overall and he has given the team at least seven innings in each of his two starts.
 
Following VanMeerbeke to the mound on Sunday, sophomore RHP Joe Fasano closed the win with two innings of one-hit, one-walk scoreless ball.
 
The losing pitcher for Houston Baptist was senior right-hander Michael Schulle (2-3), who lasted 7.1 innings and was charged with 12 hits and eight runs (six earned), with three strikeouts and no walks. Schulle allowed two runs in the first inning and one each in the second and third innings before putting up four straight zeros. He got one out in the eighth inning, but was knocked out during NJIT's six-run frame that helped ice the game for the Highlanders.
 
It took two more pitchers for HBU to get through the eighth, as Kolbie Hajdik walked both batters he faced and Matt Warren relieved him, allowing three inherited runners to score on a Matt Weckerle single for NJIT. Warren got a double play to end the eighth inning and then he retired the Highlanders in order in the ninth inning.
 
1B Tom Bouck went 3-for-4 for the Highlanders while Weckerle, Roche (playing left field), CF Ed Charlton, and DH Anthony Caiola all got two hits apiece. Weckerle and 2B Mike Rampone each drove in two runs for the Highlanders.
 
Weckerle and C Bryan Bleakley (1-for-3) each hit doubles and Roche homered, a one-out solo shot in the third inning. It was the second home run of the year for Roche, who raised his season batting average to a team-best .343 with a torrid series in Houston. The versatile junior was 11-for-18 (.611) in the four games, with five runs scored, four driven in, a double and a home run.
 
Houston Baptist, with eight hits, got two each from 2B Josh Foust, C Asai Adame, and SS Curtis Jones. Foust's triple, the only HBU extra-base hit, was in the middle of the two-run eighth inning for the Huskies. LF Blake Doerr had singled leading off and Foust followed with the triple to score Doerr and knock VanMeerbeke out of the game. Samm Wiggins then drove home Foust on a sacrifice fly.
 
NJIT scored twice in the first inning, helped by the only Houston Baptist error of the day. Rampone led off with a single and Weckerle followed with a double. After an out, Roche reached on an error, with Rampone scoring on the play. Charlton then reached base on a fielder's choice, driving home Weckerle with the second run.
 
Bleakley opened the second inning with a double, was sacrificed to third base and scored on a ground out by Rampone.
 
The Huskies got a run in the bottom of the second inning when their first two batters reached base and the first, Jones, went to third base on a fielder's choice out at second and then scored on an RBI fielder's choice out by 3B Josh Martinez.
 
The Highlanders got the run back on Roche's round-tripper in the top of the third inning and the score stayed at 4-1, NJIT, until the six-run eighth inning for the visitors.
 
The first three Highlanders—Roche, Charlton, Bouck—singled, with Bouck knocking in a run. After an out, Caiola stroked a run-scoring single. Hajdik took over the HBU pitching from Schulle and walked Jeff Peterson to load the bases and then Rampone to force in another run. Warren took the hill for Hajdik and his wild pitch to Weckerle let in the fourth Highlander run before the NJIT shortstop singled to drive in runs five and six of the frame.
 
Down 10-1, HBU salvaged a couple of runs in the bottom of the eighth inning with Doerr's single back to the box, Foust's RBI triple and the sac fly by Wiggins.
 
NJIT, which has had just five home games compared to 21 away games and a neutral site game, will be home for its next four, which come in the form of a Great West Conference series next weekend against North Dakota at Bears and Eagles Riverfront Stadium in Newark. The first game in the series is scheduled for Friday at 6 pm.