Box score Game One

Box Score Game Two

DURHAM, NC—North Carolina Central broke a 4-4 tie with a seven-run bottom of the seventh inning of the opening game Sunday to defeat visiting NJIT, 11-4, to begin a season-opening doubleheader at historic Durham Athletic Park. Then the Eagles completed the sweep with a 5-1 win in the nightcap.
 
With the season opener pushed back a day due to heavy rains in North Carolina on Saturday, there was still no benefit from playing south of the Mason-Dixon line, as the game-time temperature on Sunday was just 33 degrees for Game One and 37 degrees for Game Two.
 
In those conditions, NJIT's senior ace LHP Tripp Davis allowed four runs through the first six innings of Game One and faced three more batters in what proved to be the decisive seventh inning. As a result, Davis was tagged with the loss with an official line of: 6 innings, 8 hits, 7 runs, 4 strikeouts, and a walk.
 
Sophomore RHP Bill VanMeerbeke relieved Davis in the seventh and was charged with four runs (all unearned) on a hit, a walk, and a hit batter in one full inning. Senior RHP Kyle Burdi wrapped up for NJIT with a clean eighth inning that included a strikeout.
 
The winning pitcher for North Carolina Central in the opener was reliever junior RHP Terry McNabb, who entered a tie game in the top of the sixth inning and dominated the Highlanders, finishing up the last 3.1 innings and allowing no runs, with just a hit and a walk. McNabb recorded seven of his 10 outs by way of strikeout.
 
Eagles starter, senior RHP Michael Romano, lasted 5.2 innings, allowing 7 hits and 4 runs (3 earned), with 3 strikeouts and 2 walks.
 
NJIT finished with eight hits, paced by two apiece from CF Ed Charlton and DH Stephan Halibej, One of Charlton's hits was a home run to right center leading off the game. Halibej, a redshirt freshman due to injury in 2012, rapped out a pair of singles in his college debut. The other extra-base hit for the Highlanders was a double by LF Matt Weckerle.
 
North Carolina Central generated nine hits, led by two each from the bottom two men in the batting order, 2B Dylan Drayton, batting eighth, and LF Ryan Collins, batting ninth. The only extra-base hit for the Eagles was a two-run home run for RF Ronald Thompson that pulled his team even at 2-2 in the bottom of the second inning.
 
In the nightcap, NCCU scored all five of its runs against NJIT right-handed ace, senior Mark Leiter, Jr., before the Highlanders got on the board with their lone run of the second game in the top of the sixth. The Eagles scored two runs each in the first and third innings and then added a lone run in the fifth.
 
Leiter went seven innings, allowing 9 hits, 5 runs (4 earned), while striking out five and walking one. Matt Coughlin pitched a scoreless eighth inning for the Highlanders, allowing a hit and striking out one.
 
The winning pitcher was North Carolina Central starter Glenn Frye who pitched the first seven innings and allowed five hits and a run, without a walk, while fanning 10 NJIT batters. Jacob Russell and Gavin Guarrera each pitched an inning of scoreless relief with one walk. Russel had one strikeout and Guarrrera notched three, bringing the NCCU staff's game total to 14 strikeouts and the doubleheader total to 24.
 
NJIT managed five hits, all of which came from different players, in the nightcap. Two of the hits were doubles—one for 2B Mike Rampone, who drove in the only Highlander run and one for SS Jeff Peterson.
 
With 10 hits, North Carolina Central got three from 3B Troy Marrow and two from 1B Luis Diaz. C Carter Williamson had his team's only extra-base hit, a double and drove in a game-high two runs.
 
Game One Recap
 
NJIT, which took two-of-three against NCCU in Durham to begin the 2012 season, got 2013 off on the right foot with Charlton's homer in his and his team's first at-bat of the year. The Highlanders added another run later in the inning on an RBI single for 1B Tom Bouck, who drove in Halibej, who had singled and then advanced to second on a wild pitch.
 
The Eagles tied the game in the bottom of the second on the Thompson home run and then pulled ahead with two more runs in the bottom of the third, with the first run of the frame coming home on an infield single and the second one scoring on a bunt.
 
The score stayed at 4-2, NCCU, until the top of the sixth, when the NJIT re-tied it on a combination of three hits and two Eagle errors. Both Highlander runs scored on a fielder's choice scored on batter Teddy Bickert, who was credited with one run batted in. SS Jeff Peterson, who had been on third base, scored on the ball hit to shortstop and then freshman 3B Nick Swim, who had been on second base, advanced to third and scored on the same play by the second baseman.
 
The 4-4 tie lasted just an inning as Davis blanked North Carolina Central in the bottom of the sixth and NJIT went scoreless in the top of the seventh.
 
The first two batters of the bottom of the seventh, Drayton and Collins, singled and Drayton scored what proved to be the winning run on the first of four NJIT errors in the frame. Things only got worse from the Highlander point of view, as they made three more errors and allowed six more runs, despite the fact that the home team managed just one more hit after the Drayton and Collins singles to start the rally.
 
NCCU's McNabb struck out the side in the eighth and then opened the ninth with a strikeout before a Weckerle double for the Highlanders that was followed by two more strikeouts to end the game.
 
Game Two Recap
 
North Carolina Central got all the runs it would need for the sweep in the bottom of the first inning, plating the two runs on just one hit. CF Akeem Hood led off with a walk and Diaz, batting third, singled with one out and both Hood and Diaz would steal second base in the inning and later scored their team's two runs in the inning. Hood ended the game with two runs scored and Diaz finished with three runs scored.
 
The same duo struck again in the bottom of the third inning, as singled, stole second and later scored on an infield hit by Marrow. Diaz, who also singled, scored on a bunt later in the inning.
 
The Eagles took a 5-0 lead on an unearned run in the fifth inning, as Diaz reached on an error and later scored on a double for Williamson.
 
NJIT's run in the sixth scored before the Highlanders had made an out. Charlton walked leading off, stole second base and then scored on Rampone's double to left field.
The Highlanders left four men on base the rest of the game, but could not get more than the one run from the sixth inning across the plate.
 
NJIT is next scheduled to take on long-time national power Oklahoma State in a three-game set in Stillwater, OK, with single games on Friday, Saturday, and Sunday. Friday's series opener is slated for a 4 pm (CST) first pitch.
 
Oklahoma State has made 19 appearances in the College World Series, reaching the championship game six times and winning the 1959 National Championship. The Cowboys also have 35 NCAA Tournament berths, including 19 straight from 1981 to 1999.