Box score
 
OLD WESTBURY, NY—Mark Leiter, Jr. pitched a nine-inning, one-hit shutout with 11 strikeouts and two walks, leading visiting NJIT in a 1-0 victory Thursday afternoon at New York Institute of Technology in the opener of a four-game Great West Conference baseball series between the teams.
 
Leiter, whose only hit allowed was a single for NYIT shortstop Ryan Campbell leading off the bottom of the first inning, closed out his first career college shutout by striking out the side in the bottom of the ninth inning. His season won-lost record is 5-6.
 
NJIT (13-12 in the Great West, 22-25 overall) managed just three hits itself and the only run of the game came in the fourth inning when the Highlanders put runners on first and third with no one out and then scored on a ground ball double play.
 
NYIT (3-22 Great West, 5-41 overall) used two pitchers. Sophomore Matt Maier made his first start after 16 previous relief appearances and went the first two innings, allowing a hit and a walk, but no runs. Ryan Dillabough, a junior right-hander who leads the Bears in games started (11), came on at the beginning of the third inning for his first relief appearance of the year and was charged with the loss after allowing the only run.
 
Dillabough pitched the last seven innings and allowed two hits and one run, while striking out two and walking none as his record fell to 1-9. At one point he retired 12 in a row and got outs from 17 of the last 18 batters he faced.
 
The Highlanders got their only run as CF Ed Charlton led off the fourth inning with a single to left field and then stole his team-leading 14th base. The next batter, 2B Mike Rampone, reached first on a fielder's choice, with all hands safe, as Charlton made it safely to third base with no one out.
 
3B Matt Weckerle then grounded into a 4-6-3 double play, but Charlton crossed the plate for what would become the game-winner.
 
The run-scoring double play ball began a run of 12 straight Highlanders retired for Dillabough, a string that did not end until 1B Tom Bouck doubled down the left field line with one out in the eighth inning. Nothing came of the Bouck double, however, as Dillabough got the next two batters in the eighth and then set down the Highlanders in order in the ninth.
 
Charlton, who opened the game with a single, but was erased in that inning attempting a steal, finished 2-for-4 to join Bouck as the only NJIT batters with hits. C Bryan Bleakley, who walked to lead off the second inning, was the only other Highlander to reach base.
 
On the other side, Leiter was nearly untouchable, retiring 17 in a row from the last out of the first inning through the first out in the seventh inning.
 
Campbell, after the leadoff single for the Bears in the first inning, was caught stealing with one out and NJIT's only error of the game allowed the Bears another baserunner with two out, but the Highlander junior quickly picked up the third out to start his string of 17 consecutive outs.
 
Leiter's streak ended at 17 in a row when he walked NYIT junior 2B Ali Rodriguez on a 3-2 count with one out in the seventh inning. Rodriguez, the 2011 Great West stolen base champion, was caught stealing and then Leiter got the third out to end the seventh.
 
Leiter gave up his second walk of the day with one out in the eighth inning, this one to freshman RF James Bulva. But Bulva was the last baserunner, as Leiter reached back to record five straight outs, the last four on strikeouts.
 
Friday's whitewash was the third nine-inning complete-game shutout in NJIT's Division I era, which began in 2007. The first also came against NYIT, as PJ Saporito (Class of 2009) blanked the Bears in a 2-0 win on May 3, 2007. The next one was on March 4, 2011, when Tripp Davis stifled Fairleigh Dickinson in a 9-0 win.
 
There was also one nine-inning shutout in which NJIT used four pitchers and two seven-inning complete-game shutouts.
 
Also, Davis had a one-hit shutout last week at Chicago State in a game shortened to seven innings by the Great West Conference's 10-run rule; DJ Roche pitched nine scoreless innings against Utah Valley in April 2011, but that game went extra innings, with UVU scoring twice in the 11th inning for a 2-0 win; and, Leiter, himself, went seven innings and registered 14 strikeouts without giving up a run last May 19 vs. Chicago State, but, with a big lead, he was pulled for the last two innings of that game to rest his arm in preparation for the 2011 Great West Tournament opener, which took place on May 24.
 
This weekend's final regular season series continues on Friday with a noon doubleheader at NYIT on Long Island.
 
After that, the teams will play a single game in Newark on Saturday at Bears and Eagles Riverfront Stadium. The first pitch of that game, originally slated for 1 pm, has been moved ahead an hour to noon. It will also be Senior Day, with ceremonies now beginning before noon.