Box score

NEWARK, NJ—A nine-run top of the fourth inning keyed an 11-6 win for Northern Colorado and the visiting Bears avoided a series sweep in the Saturday midday conclusion of the four-game Great West Conference baseball series against NJIT at Bears and Eagles Riverfront Stadium.
 
NJIT (10-13, 3-1 Great West) took early leads of 1-0 and 4-2, but Northern Colorado (10-16, 1-3 Great West) exploded for six hits and nine runs (three earned) in the fourth inning against the first two Highlander relievers. The home team's cause was also hurt by five fielding errors in the opening four innings, including a crucial pair of mistakes in the decisive fourth inning.
 
Saturday's result on getaway day of the first 2012 Great West series for the teams snapped two significant streaks. The win broke a five-game losing streak for the victorious Bears and NJIT ended a program Division I-best five-game winning streak (the Highlanders began DI baseball competition in 2007).
 
The winning pitcher for Northern Colorado was the starter, freshman RHP Jess Amedee, who raised his record to 3-1 with five innings work, allowing six hits and five runs, while walking four and striking out two.
 
He was the beneficiary of 11 runs support, plus strong relief work, beginning with sophomore RHP Josh Tinnon, who went 2.1 innings, allowing four hits and one run, while striking out one. Senior LHP Cameron Tallman retired both batters he faced in the eighth inning and senior right-hander Casey Coy moved over from first base to nail down the win with a 1-2-3 ninth inning.
 
NJIT, which had won its non-conference game at Rider earlier in the week, 2-1, with sophomore RHP Joe Fasano starting and pitching the first three innings, followed that roadmap again on Saturday and Fasano pitched three full innings against Northern Colorado, allowing three hits and two runs, while striking out three and walking one.
 
However, unlike the Rider game, where the Highlanders got six innings of one-run relief after Fasano departed, the first two pitchers out of the NJIT bullpen surrendered nine runs in the fourth inning.
 
The first, junior RHP Kyle Burdi (0-1), would take the loss after getting two outs and allowing five runs (three earned), three hits and two walks.
 
The second reliever of the inning, freshman RHP Mike Liegel got the final out of the frame, but he allowed three hits and hit a batter and was tagged with four more runs, all unearned.
 
Liegel settled down for a 1-2-3 fifth inning, beginning a run of five shutout innings by the Highlander bullpen to finish off the contest. Sophomore RHP Matt Coughlin pitched two scoreless innings, allowing a hit and two walks, while striking out one, and junior LHP Austin McAuliffe tossed two innings of one-hit scoreless ball, with a walk and a strikeout.
 
Northern Colorado finished with 11 hits, as four Bears collected two hits each and three others got one hit each. There were only two hitless spots in the batting order, and one, the second spot, got three bases-on-balls between starting RF Adrian Schenk and his sub Eric Ferguson.
 
Sophomore DH Bryan Tibbitts was 2-for-5, including a double, with a game-best three runs batted in. He also scored a pair of runs, as did LF Jensen Park (2-for-3, RBI) and leadoff hitter 2B Ryan Yamane (2-for-5, RBI). Aside from Tibbitts' three runs batted in, the balanced Bears got one RBI each from six different men.
 
Northern Colorado doubles were hit by Park, Tibbitts, and CF Dylan Banach, while Coy, the starting first baseman who finished up at pitcher, belted a triple.
 
NJIT (10 hits) got two each from CF Ed Charlton (2-for-4 with a double, one RBI), C Bryan Bleakley (2-for-3), and 3B Jeff Peterson (2-for-3). SS Matt Weckerle was hitless in four at-bats, but his two RBI paced the Highlanders.
 
The Highlanders extra-base hits were doubles from 2B Mike Rampone, LF DJ Roche, Charlton and 1B Tom Bouck.
 
NJIT took an early 1-0 lead with a run in the first inning, but Northern Colorado took its first lead with two runs in the top of the third inning, before the Highlanders rebounded with a three runs in the bottom half.
 
Trailing 4-2 after three, Northern Colorado took control for good with the nine-run fourth inning. NJIT answered with a single run in the bottom of the fourth and then another run in the seventh, but it wasn't close to enough, as the Bears prevailed, 11-6.
 
Burdi, the junior RHP, began the decisive top of the fourth inning, issuing a leadoff walk followed by an RBI double to Tibbitts, who went to third base on a wild pitch and scored the tying run on a one-out sacrifice fly by Banach. Yamane then hit an infield single, Ferguson walked and Hilker drove in the go-ahead run with a single through the left side.
 
Liegel, a freshman RHP, then came on for the Highlanders and hit his first batter on a 2-2 count to load the bases before the Highlanders committed the first of their two errors in the inning, allowing another run to score. Park then singled into the third base-shortstop hole, knocking in another run. Tibbitts followed with a bases-loaded single to center field and all three runs scored, the third coming home thanks to the fifth Highlander error in the first four innings, as the ball squirted through the center fielder, allowing Tibbitts to race all the way to third base on the single and error. He scored on a single by C Derek Baum before Liegel finally recorded the last out with the visitors on top, 11-4. The line for the inning was 9 runs, 6 hits, and 2 errors.
 
NJIT had struck first, set up by Rampone's leadoff double to right center field. He moved up on a ground out and eventually scored from third base on a two-out passed ball.
 
Fasano, the Highlander starting pitcher, worked around three NJIT errors to hold Northern Colorado scoreless in the first two innings, but the Bears broke through in the top of the third when Banach led off with a double into the left field corner and scored when the next batter, Yamane, singled sharply to right field. Yamane stole second base and moved to third on a one-out single by SS Adam Hilker (2-for-5, RBI, in the game and 7-for-16, five RBI in the series). Yamane scored the second run for the Bears when Coy hit a line drive sacrifice fly to center field.
 
The Highlanders reclaimed the lead in the bottom of the frame with three runs on one hit and two Northern Colorado throwing errors. Peterson led off with a single and then Rampone hit a high chopper to third base. Tony Crudo made a nice play, extending his body on a high leap to field the ball, but then he threw wide to first base, enabling the runners to move up to second and third base, respectively.
 
SS Matt Weckerle then hit a ground ball to first base and the throw home went astray, as Peterson scored and Rampone advanced to third. Weckerle advanced to third base on a sacrifice bunt and then he scored on a sacrifice fly by LF DJ Roche.
 
After falling behind 11-4, the Highlanders got a run back in the bottom of the fourth, but it could have been more. Bouck led off the inning with a double, but he was thrown out at third attempting to move up on a pitch in the dirt with no one out. The next four Highlanders reached base, three on walks, with the run coming in on a two-out bases-loaded walk to Weckerle. However, UNC's Amedee avoided further damage by getting the third out and stranding three Highlander baserunners.
 
With the score at 11-5 through four innings, there was just one run scored the rest of the way. That run, for NJIT, came on a two-out rally in the bottom of the seventh inning. With two outs Roche doubled down the left field line and Charlton followed with a dunk RBI single in front of the left fielder.
 
The Highlanders got runners on first and third base with one out in the eighth, but nothing came of it, as Tallman came in from the Bears bullpen to snuff out the last threat of the day for either side by retiring the next two batters and end the inning.
 
Coy, who had started games at first base and second base in the series, moved over from first base to pitcher for the ninth inning and retired NJIT in order.
 
The Highlanders will resume action on Friday at 2 pm (CDT) in the first game of a Great West Conference series at Houston Baptist.