Box score (Game 1)

Box score (Game 2)

LAWRENCEVILLE, NJ—NJIT traveled to Rider and split a baseball doubleheader with the Broncs, as the Highlanders took Game One, 4-3, and Rider rode the two-hit complete-game pitching of Kurt Sowa to a 5-0 win in the second game of Saturday's twin bill played at Sonny Pittaro Field.
 
Rider ends the day at 9-9, while the Highlanders, 6-11 on the season after the split, got their own strong pitching performance in the opener when junior RHP Matt Coughlin logged his first college complete game, raising his personal season won-lost record to 2-1.
 
Coughlin, who was the staff swingman last year, pitching in both relief and as a weekday starter before becoming a conference starter later in the season, pitched nine innings against Rider in the 4-3 opening-game win. He scattered seven hits and allowed one earned run (three total), while walking two and striking out two.
 
Senior LHP Tyler Smith (3-2) took the opening game loss for Rider, going six innings and allowing six hits, three runs (one earned) with six strikeouts and a walk.
 
Topping Smith was no mean feat for the Highlanders. The senior was the New Jersey College Baseball Association Division I Rookie Pitcher of the Year in 2010 and the NJCBA and Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference Closer of the Year 2011. Converting to a starter last season, his 2012 junior year included  a complete-game win over eventual champion Manhattan in the first round of the double-elimination MAAC championship postseason tournament, which earned him all-tournament honors.
 
Smith was relieved on Saturday by fellow senior RHP Sean Kuberiet, who allowed a run in a third of an inning pitched before giving way to sophomore LHP David Hafer, who pitched the last 2.2 innings without allowing a run, with one hit and three strikeouts. However, Hafer allowed an inherited runner to score and that would prove costly for Rider in the one-run loss.
 
Each team had seven hits in the opener, but three of the seven NJIT hits were doubles. 3B Matt Weckerle had one of the doubles and, at 2-for-4, was the only Highlander with more than one hit in the game. The other NJIT doubles came from 2B Mike Rampone (1-for-3) and RF Andrew Benjamin (1-for-3). The four Highlander runs were driven home by CF Ed Charlton (1-for-5), Weckerle, 1B Stephan Halibej (1-for-4) and C Zach Renna (1-for-3).
 
Rider leadoff man and left fielder Ian Lindsay, a 2012 first-team all-MAAC and all-NJCBA honoree, finished 2-for-4 with an RBI, while 2B Greg Fazio was 2-for-4. The only extra-base hit for the Broncs came from SS Mike Parsons (1-for-4, 2 runs scored).
 
Rider took the early lead, plating a run in the bottom of the third inning, but NJIT evened the score in the top of the fourth inning and then went ahead to stay with two runs in the fifth inning, making it 3-1. The Broncs got a run back in the bottom of the fifth inning, but the Highlanders reclaimed a two-run cushion with a run in the top of the seventh, which Rider answered in the bottom half. Neither team scored over the last two innings, with Coughlin retiring his last five batters faced to nail down the win for NJIT.
 
Rider's first run was the result of its only extra-base hit in the nine-inning opener. Parsons doubled to lead off and eventually came home on a two-out single for C Eric Strano.
 
NJIT's first run scored with the help of an error. Rampone walked to lead off and, after an out, moved up on a fielder's choice error. He was then forced out at third on a fielder's choice, but Jake Stern, whose ground ball turned into the earlier error, would later score the tying run from second base on a two-out single by Renna.
 
The decisive two-run top of the fifth inning for NJIT began with a double by Benjamin, who was immediately singled home by Charlton, who advanced to second base due to a Rider error on the play. Charlton moved up to third base on a ground out and came in to score on a single for Halibej.
 
Rider got an unearned run of its own in the bottom of the fifth, as Parsons reached on a leadoff error and then Fazio singled back to the pitcher, Coughlin. A bunt single by Lindsay loaded the bases and then Parsons scored the run when Strano hit into a bases-loaded double play with no one out.
 
The Highlanders clung to the 3-2 lead heading into the top of the seventh inning, when Kuberiet, just into the game to pitch for the Broncs, hit the first batter, Renna and then walked Benjamin. Charlton's fly out to right field moved both runners up a base and Hafer was called in from the bullpen. Weckerle, Hafer's first batter, greeted him with a double, bringing in Renna with the fourth Highlander run. Hafer then retired the next two NJIT hitters to strand two runners in scoring position.
 
Rider mounted a two-out rally in the bottom of the seventh inning for what would be its final run. Fazio got a two-out infield single and ended up on second base due to a throwing error. Lindsay then hit a run-scoring single to bring in Fazio with the unearned run before Coughlin got the third out.
 
Coughlin, the 6-foot-6 NJIT junior, allowed a leadoff walk in the eighth, but the runner was later erased attempting to steal and Coughlin got the other two batters out on fly balls. He later got a fly out, a ground out, and a line out in the ninth inning to wrap up the complete-game victory.
 
The seven-inning nightcap, a 5-0 win for the Broncs, was simply a matter of too much of the Rider sophomore right-hander Sowa, as far as NJIT was concerned. The Highlanders left two men on base in both the first and the fifth innings, but they managed just two hits in the game and no runs, as Sowa (4-1) struck out nine and walked two.
 
The NJIT starter, senior LHP Tripp Davis, also pitched a complete game, but his record fell to 0-3 on the season after he pitched six innings and allowed eight hits—all singles—and five runs (four earned), with three strikeouts and a walk.
 
The two NJIT hits were a first-inning single by Halibej and a fifth-inning single for LF Nick Rabasco, who also drew one of his team's two walks (the other went to DH Tom Bouck).
 
Most of the Rider damage came from the lower part of the batting order, as spots one through four went a combined 1-for-12. However, 1B Justin Thomas was 2-for-3 batting in the sixth spot and Fazio, who was 2-for-2 in the opener, followed that with a 2-for-3 effort out of the seventh spot in the second game. Of the four Rider runs batted in, Fazio, had one RBI in the seventh spot; C Richie Garcia (1-for-2) had one in the eighth spot; and DH Ken Kremer, batting ninth, also had an RBI, as did leadoff man Brian Donnelly.
 
NJIT had what might have been its biggest threat of the second game in its first at-bat. With one out, SS Nick Swim reached on an error and Weckerle was hit by a pitch. Halibej then singled to right field, loading the bases with one out, but the threat was extinguished when Rider turned Rampone's line drive into an inning-ending double play.
 
The Broncs got more than enough runs to win in the bottom of the second inning, when their first four batters singled, producing runs on RBI knocks by Fazio and Garcia. The third run came home on a double play ground out.
 
Rider added two more runs (one earned) in the bottom of the fourth inning. Fazio hit a one-out single and the next batter, Garcia, was hit by a pitch. Kremer singled to knock in the first run. Then he and Garcia moved up a base each on an error on a failed pickoff attempt and Garcia scored on a fielder's choice on the second Rider out of the inning.
 
Already down 5-0, NJIT staged a threat in the top of the fifth, when Bouck, the first batter, walked and then Rabasco singled. A double play ball made it two out with Bouck on third base. The inning stayed alive thanks to a wild pitch on strike three that allowed Benjamin to reach first base. However, Sowa ended the inning with a clean strikeout.
 
The rubber game of the three-game non-conference weekend series moves to Newark, with first pitch of the nine-inning game at Bears and Eagles Riverfront Stadium scheduled for noon on Sunday.