Box Score
 
NEWARK, NJ—Visiting Texas-Pan American scored what proved to be the game-winning run in the top of the eighth inning and went on to nip NJIT, 2-1, Sunday afternoon in the conclusion of a four-game Great West Conference baseball series at Bears and Eagles Riverfront Stadium.
 
The Sunday win gave the Broncs a 3-1 edge in games for the series, which began with a 5-3 UTPA win on Friday night and continued with three straight one-run decisions. The Broncs won the opener of Saturday's doubleheader, 1-0, before NJIT got its win, 4-3, in 18 innings in the nightcap, leading into Sunday's 2-1 finale.
 
The series ends with Texas-Pan American moving three full games ahead of NJIT in conference play with each team having eight Great West games remaining. The Broncs are 13-7 in conference and 26-15 overall, while the Highlanders are an even 10-10 in the GWC and 19-22 overall.
 
NJIT, which won 12-of-15 from March 31 to April 24, has lost eight of its last nine conference games, dropping the last game of its series against North Dakota on April 21, all four games last weekend at Utah Valley, and now three-of-four against UTPA.
 
NJIT scored first on Sunday with a run in the third inning, but that would be it for the day and Texas-Pan American tied the score with a run in the top of the fifth inning and then went ahead to stay with the eighth-inning run.
 
Senior Michael Zouzalik, whose twin brother, Zach, was the winning pitcher in relief on Friday, started and got the win for the Broncs on Sunday. He went 8.1 innings, allowing one run on five hits and four walks, while striking out two. He is 4-0 on the year.
 
Dylan Badura, a junior left-hander, recorded the final two outs and issued one walk to earn his first save of the season.
 
Sophomore RHP Matt Coughlin (3-2) was the tough-luck loser for the Highlanders, starting and going 7.1 inning, while allowing seven hits and two runs. He struck out four and walked one in his first Great West start of the season and second of his career.
 
Junior left-hander Austin McAuliffe relieved Coughlin with the score tied and the go-ahead run, which would score on a sacrifice fly, on third base. McAuliffe pitched two-thirds of an inning without allowing a baserunner. Freshman right-hander Conor McGlynn worked a scoreless ninth inning, allowing one walk and striking out one.
 
Texas-Pan American finished with seven hits, three by its star senior first baseman Roger Bernal, including a key hit in the decisive eighth inning. LF Derek Hagy was 2-for-3 and Riley Goulding, pinch-hitting in the eighth inning, delivered a crucial double and eventually scored the winning run. His double was the only extra-base hit for either team. Angel Ibanez was 0-for-2, but he drove in the winning run with the game's only sacrifice fly.
 
NJIT finished with five hits, all singles, with 3B Matt Weckerle finishing a team-best 2-for-5. Jeff Pizzi, Ed Charlton, and Anthony Caiola all added singles fro the Highlanders. Pizzi drove in the only NJIT run and he hit a line drive in the ninth inning that looked for an instant as if it would deliver the tying run, but Bernal, the UTPA first baseman, made a big stab to preserve the lead.
 
The Highlanders got the first run of the game in the bottom of the third inning, with the run scoring on their first hit of the day. Tom Bouck opened with a walk and advanced on a sacrifice bunt by Scott Brosman, who was safe on the play when Zouzalik fielded the ball and threw wide to first base. After a fielder's choice ground out moved Bouck to third, Pizzi singled sharply through the right side of the infield to drive in the run.
 
Texas-Pan American used a hit by pitch and then back-to-back singles to even the score at a run apiece in the top of the fifth inning. With one out, Iradier Hernandez was hit by the pitch and the next two batters, Hagy and Shane Klemcke, singled, with Klemcke's single up the middle driving home Hernandez with the tying run. Coughlin retired the next two batters, leaving two UTPA runners in scoring position.
 
The Broncs claimed the lead in the top of the eighth inning, keyed by a one-out pinch-hit double by Goulding, who lifted a fly ball into the right field corner. He moved up to third base on Bernal's third single, this one up the middle and just beyond the diving reach of Highlander second baseman Mike Rampone.
 
That brought in McAuliffe with one out and runners on the corners to face Ibanez, whose mid-range fly ball to center field scored Goulding with what would be the winning run.
 
NJIT loaded the bases with one out in the bottom of the eighth, but the left-handed hitting Bouck, attempting to go the other way with the outfield defense shading him toward right field as an extreme pull hitter, bounced to third base, starting a 5-2-3 inning-ending double play.
 
The Highlanders also mounted a threat in the bottom of the ninth inning, as Brosman was hit by a pitch leading off. NJIT coach Mike Cole then inserted Andrew Benjamin as a pinch runner and the injured DJ Roche as a pinch hitter. Roche completed the successful sacrifice, pushing Benjamin, the potential tying run, into scoring position with one out.
 
That brought in the junior lefty Badura from the UTPA bullpen. The first batter he faced, Pizzi hit a line drive toward the hole between the first baseman and second baseman, but Bernal made a lunging catch across his body for the second out. Mike Rampone worked out a walk, but Badura picked up his first save of the season by inducing Weckerle to ground out to second base on the first pitch.
 
NJIT is scheduled to play its final non-conference game of the season on Tuesday at 7 pm, when it hosts Wagner at Bears and Eagles Riverfront Stadium.