Box score

CHICAGO—Tripp Davis pitched a complete-game one-hit shutout and NJIT matched its 2012 Great West Conference season scoring high in a 13-0 baseball win at Chicago State Saturday night in a game shortened to seven innings by the GWC's 10-run mercy rule.
 
Davis, the junior left-hander who was first-team all-conference in 2011, raised his 2012 won-lost record to 5-2 with Saturday's gem against Chicago State. He struck out seven and walked three, with the only CSU hit coming on a double by senior first baseman Jeremy Ratajczyk leading off the Cougars' half of the second inning.
 
The teams were scoreless through the first three innings, but NJIT gave Davis all the runs he needed in the fourth inning, plating a pair before exploding for eight runs in the top of the fifth and then adding three more in the top of the seventh.
 
Conference rules bring a halt to the proceedings as soon as the winning team has built a lead of at least 10 runs and the losing team has had seven innings of at-bats.
 
The losing pitcher was the Chicago State starter, freshman RHP Eric Hall (1-4), who pitched four-plus innings and allowed seven runs, only two of which were earned, three hits and two walks, plus a hit batter. He struck out one. The Cougars used four relief pitchers who combined to allow six hits and six runs (five earned) in three innings. The CSU bullpen struck out four, walked two and hit one batter.
 
NJIT is now 12-10 in the Great West, matching its 2011 conference win total, when it finished 12-16 in the GWC. The win also gives NJIT a new program Division I record (since 2007) for overall victories at 21, topping the old mark of 20 set last season when the Highlanders finished 20-35 in their first season under coach Mike Cole. The 2012 Highlanders are 21-22 with seven more regular season games scheduled, plus at least two more in the GWC Tournament at the end of May.
 
The loss in the second game of the scheduled four-game set vs. NJIT drops Chicago State to 6-16 in the Great West and 9-35 overall.
 
The Highlanders finished Saturday's game with nine hits—two apiece for 2B Mike Rampone, C Bryan Bleakley, 1B Tom Bouck, and LF Anthony Caiola. SS Jeff Peterson (1-for-2) drove in a game-high three runs, while Bleakley, Bouck, and Caiola all drove in a pair. Bouck's two-run homer in NJIT's eight-run fifth inning was the only extra-base hit for the Highlanders.
 
Each team went down in order in the first inning before Bleakley led off the second with a single for NJIT, but he was erased on a double play. Rataczyk opened the Chicago State half of the inning with a double to left center, but NJIT's Davis answered by retiring the next three Cougars to end the inning and begin a run of consecutive batters retired that would reach 15 before he walked Mattingly Romanin to begin the CSU seventh. Davis struck out the next two hitters before issuing a pair of walks that loaded the bases, but he got the final out of the game to preserve the shutout.
 
The Highlanders broke into the scoring column with two runs in the fourth inning, with both tallies coming in on a single for Peterson.
 
Chicago State needed three pitchers—the starter, Hall, James Tucker, and Jose Leon—to get through NJIT's eight-run fifth inning that included only three hits, but also three Cougar errors, a walk, and a wild pitch. Rampone singled to drive in the first run of the inning; Bleakley drove in a pair with a single; Peterson had a sacrifice fly; and, Bouck hit his two-run homer in the inning. Leon, a fifth-year right-hander, finally ended the inning for CSU by striking out the first two batters he faced.
 
NJIT got its three runs in the seventh inning on a bases loaded walk to Andrew Benjamin and a two-run single by Caiola.
 
The 13 runs NJIT scored in the second game of its series at Chicago State matched its 2012 GWC high, first done in a 13-1 win at Houston Baptist on April 14. Davis pitched a complete-game two-hitter in that eight-inning contest. He is 4-1 with a 2.27 earned run average in six conference starts this season.
 
Saturday's original schedule called for NJIT and Chicago State to play a doubleheader, but rain in the Chicago area delayed the start on Saturday to 7 pm, limiting the day's activity to one game. Now, the teams will attempt to play a doubleheader on Sunday starting at 11 am (CDT) in order to complete the four-game Great West Conference series.