Box score

LAWRENCEVILLE, NJ—NJIT scored twice in the sixth inning and four Highlander pitchers combined to limit Rider to five hits in a 2-1 non-conference baseball win for NJIT Tuesday afternoon at Sonny Pittaro Field.
 
The win brings NJIT's season record to 7-12 and, coupled with a 9-6 win at Hartford in their previous game last Saturday, the Highlanders have back-to-back wins for the first time in nearly a month. Rider, a 33-win team a year ago and the second-place finisher in the Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference in 2011, falls to 7-20 this season, with six straight losses.
 
NJIT had won back-to-back in its opening series at North Carolina Central in February and then again in a March 4 doubleheader at Delaware State. But the Highlanders lost 10 of their next 11, with five of the losses coming by one run and five of the losses also coming in their opponents' last at-bat, before NJIT got the 9-6 win against Hartford.
 
Tuesday's one-run margin of victory for NJIT over Rider was its first such win of the season after the Highlanders sustained six one-run losses.
 
Highlander coach Mike Cole called on four pitchers to secure the tight victory at Rider. Sophomore RHP Joe Fasano, with four previous relief appearances in 2012, made his first start of the season and faced the minimum nine batters in three innings. His only baserunner came on a one-out hit-by-pitch in the bottom of the third and that man was quickly erased on an inning-ending double play.
 
Freshman RHP Mike Liegel, making his third appearance and first since March 10 at Presbyterian, worked the next two innings and allowed one hit and one hit batsman while striking out two. Liegel, the pitcher of record when NJIT got its two runs, was credited with his first college victory when the next two Highlander relievers held onto the lead.
 
Junior RHP Kyle Burdi followed Liegel and allowed the lone Rider run on four hits in two innings of work. And sophomore RHP Jake Porcello finished up, retiring all six batters he faced to earn his first college save.
 
A transfer from Seton Hall, where he pitched in relief in 2010, Porcello had trouble in four previous NJIT appearances, including a start at Wake Forest, ranked 24th in the nation at the time. However, he retired the Rider Broncs on four infield outs, a fly out, and a strikeout.
 
The losing pitcher for Rider was freshman starting LHP David Hafer (0-2), who allowed five hits and two runs, with eight strikeouts and three walks in six innings. Three relievers combined to hold the Highlanders scoreless on two hits and a walk over the final three innings.
 
NJIT, which left 10 runners on base in the game, totaled seven hits, four walks and two hit-by-pitch. SS Matt Weckerle (2-for-5) was the only player on either side with more than one hit. Weckerle and freshman CF Ed Charlton (1-for-3) each hit doubles, accounting for the only extra-base hits in the game.
 
Senior DH Anthony Caiola (1-for-3) had an RBI single in the sixth inning, driving home Charlton with what proved to be the winning run. The first NJIT run was scored by RF DJ Roche (1-for-3), who scored ahead of Charlton's double in the sixth inning.
 
Rider, with five hits, two hit-by-pitch and no walks, left five runners on base. The five hits for the Broncs, all singles, came from five different players.
 
NJIT which left five on base through the first five innings, finally broke through with a pair of scores in the top of the sixth against Rider's Hafer, who was working what would be his final inning on the mound.
 
After an out, Roche walked and stole second. Charlton followed with a double to left field, plating Roche with the game's first run. After NJIT's second out, C Bryan Bleakley (0-1, HBP, two walks) reached base on a walk. With two outs, Caiola singled up the middle and the speedy Charlton scored the second run from second base. Hafer then notched his second strikeout of the inning and eighth of the day to strand two more Highlander runners.
 
Burdi, NJIT's third pitcher, allowed the first two batters he faced to reach base in the bottom of the sixth inning, but they were left in scoring position when Burdi reached back for a strikeout and a ground out to escape the jam.
 
Rider got a leadoff single from LF Ian Lindsay in the seventh inning and after one out, 2B Mike Parsons singled to put runners on first and second with one out. Lindsay then stole third and scored what would be his team's only run of the day when Bleakley, the NJIT catcher, was charged with an error on the steal play.
 
With the potential tying run on second base and one out, Burdi again buckled down, picking up two straight outs to keep the score at 2-1.
 
NJIT was poised to build on its lead in the eighth inning, loading the bases with one out, but sophomore RHP Jerry Mulderig came in from the Rider bullpen and induced a double play to end the Highlander threat.
 
Porcello took over for NJIT in the bottom of the eighth, getting outs on bouncers to first base and pitcher, respectively, and then ending the frame with a strikeout.
 
Weckerle hit his double for the Highlanders with two down in the top of the ninth, but nothing came of it, setting the stage for Porcello to nail down the save with a fly out to right center and then a ground out to second base and a pop up to second base.
 
After going 7-12 in pre-conference play, with just one home game, 17 away games, and a neutral site game, NJIT will begin Great West Conference play with four home games between Thursday and Saturday against Northern Colorado.
 
It will be a formidable task for the Highlanders, who have lost all nine tries against the Bears since Great West baseball began in 2010. In May 2010 at Diamond Nation in Flemington, NJ, Northern Colorado reached double-figure runs totals in three of the four games and held NJIT to seven combined runs in the four regular season games. UNC later won 9-1 over the Highlanders at the GWC Tournament later in May at Texas-Pan American.
 
Last year in Greeley, CO, Northern Colorado claimed another four-game series sweep. Although the Bears reached double-figure scoring just once in the four games, their pitchers limited NJIT to nine combined runs in the four games. The teams did not meet in the 2011 GWC Tournament.
 
Northern Colorado has been the second-place team in the Great West Conference for each of the GWC's two-year existence with a 22-6 conference mark in 2010 and 19-7 a year ago.
 
The Bears begin GWC play this year with a 9-13 record in the pre-conference schedule.
 
The NJIT-Northern Colorado series will begin a day earlier than the typical conference weekend series, due to Easter Sunday. Instead of Friday to Sunday, this opening GWC series will begin Thursday with a single game, continue with a doubleheader on Friday afternoon and then a single game on Saturday.
 
The series opener is slated for a 7:30 pm start on Thursday at Bears and Eagles Riverfront Stadium. Originally slated to begin at 6 pm, first pitch was pushed back due to a Rutgers-Newark game, which begins at 3:30 at the stadium.