Box score (Game 1)

Box score (Game 2)

BROOKHAVEN, NY—NJIT completed a four-game Great West Conference baseball series sweep of NYIT by taking both ends of a Sunday doubleheader played at Dowling College's Golden Lions Field on Long Island. The Highlanders won the first game, shortened to seven innings by the GWC 10-run rule, 11-1, and then the nine-inning second game, 10-4.
 
The sweep raises NJIT's conference record to 5-3 and its overall mark to 13-18. NYIT, which also lost all four games to NJIT in 2012, is 1-7 in the Great West and 3-28 overall.
 
Game 1
NJIT, the nominal “home team” (batted second) in the opener, won easily, 11-1, in seven innings. NYIT scored its only run in the top of the first inning, but the Highlanders seized the lead quickly, with two runs in the bottom half and then continued adding on, with two runs in the third inning, three in the fourth, and four in the bottom of the sixth, triggering the Great West Conference 10-run mercy rule when a team leads by at least 10 runs after the team that trails has batted in at least seven innings.
 
The win went to NJIT junior RHP Matt Coughlin (4-1), who scattered  nine hits and allowing an unearned run in the seven-inning complete game, while striking out three and walking one. Coughlin, who allowed at least one hit in every inning, but no runs over the last six, notched his second complete game of 2013 and lowered his earned run average to 2.08, tops among the NJIT starting pitchers.
 
Taking the loss for the Bears was junior RHP Brennen Foster (0-2), the first of three NYIT pitchers. Foster allowed five hits and four runs, with a strikeout and three walks in 2.2 innings and two relievers combined to pitch 3.1 innings and allow eight hits and seven runs.
 
NJIT, with 13 hits in six innings of at-bats, got a 4-for-5, including two doubles, from C Scott Brosman, and a 2-for-4 with two doubles, plus five runs batted in from senior LF Teddy Bickert (2-for-5), who is coming back from a wrist injury that kept him out of every game between a start on February 24 at Oklahoma State and a defensive appearance on April 6 against Rider. Starting in the last three games of the NYIT series, Bickert was a combined 6-for-11 (.545), with four doubles and eight RBI against the Bears.
 
Also contributing two hits apiece in Game One for the Highlanders were: CF Nick Rabasco (2-for-4, double, 2 runs); 3B Mike Rampone (2-for-4, 2 RBI); and, 1B Tom Bouck (2-for-3, 2 runs, 2 RBI).
 
NYIT, with nine total hits (eight singles and a double), got two hits each from CF Robert Loftus and 3B Bryan VanVranken, who hit the Bears' double. NYIT got its run after Loftus opened the game with a single, moved up one base on a sacrifice, another base on a ground out and then scored on an NJIT error.
 
NJIT took the lead in the bottom of the first, as Rabasco and Rampone hit consecutive singles and moved up on a ground out before Bouck drove them both home with a single. The Highlanders added two more scores in the third, the first on a bases-loaded walk to SS Nick Swim and the second on a bases-loaded fielder's choice ground out by Bickert.
 
Three more runs crossed the plate for NJIT in the fourth inning when Bickert unloaded a bases-loaded, two-out double down the right field line. And the Highlanders put themselves in position for the run-rule win with a four-run bottom of the sixth inning as Brosman opened the frame with his second double of the day and scored two batters later on a Bickert single. Rabasco doubled home another run and Rampone, who would go 10-for-17 (.588) in the series, singled for two more runs.
 
Game 2
In Game Two, NJIT was the “visiting team” (batted first) and the Highlanders took care of business early, scoring four times in the opening frame and adding three more runs in the second after the Bears had scored a run in the bottom of the first inning. NJIT added a run in the fourth for an 8-1 lead before NYIT closed the gap slightly with a two-run bottom of the fourth. However, the Highlanders answered with two runs of their own in the next half-inning and carried a 10-3 lead all the way to the bottom of the ninth inning, when the Bears managed a run off of Highlander reliever Ian Bentley.
 
The win went to sophomore RHP Bill VanMeerbeke (2-3), who made his first conference start and his first overall start since March 20 against Siena. NJIT's top freshman pitcher in 2012, VanMeerbeke sustained dental injuries when he was hit by a hard line drive while pitching at Oklahoma State on February 23 and then experienced some later arm soreness. He had made three straight relief appearances until Sunday's start on Long Island. He was solid against NYIT, pitching the first six innings and allowing eight hits and one earned run (three total), with five strikeouts and three walks.
 
Bentley, the freshman left-hander, earned his third save, closing out the last three innings and allowing four hits and one run, with four strikeouts and no walks. Bentley, 3-1 with three saves, has all three wins and two saves over his last five appearances. However, the run in the ninth inning Sunday snapped his streak of scoreless relief innings at 14 in a row over the same five-game span.
 
The loss went to the NYIT starter, senior RHP Ryan Dillabough (0-5), who yielded 13 hits and 10 runs (eight earned) in six innings. He struck out five and walked three. Freshman RHP Alex Gounaris blanked the Highlanders on one hit over the last three innings. He struck out one and did not issue a walk.
 
Rampone led the Highlanders in hits in the second game, going 4-for-5, including a triple, and scoring three runs, while driving in one. Bickert had three hits, all doubles, in five at-bats and drove in three runs in the nightcap, while Bouck finished 2-for-5 with two runs scored and two batted in. RF Andrew Benjamin (1-for-5) added a triple for NJIT.
 
The Bears had four batters with two hits each in the nightcap, with a team total of 12 hits. 3B Michael Fermin, who did not start, was 2-for-2, and SS Joshua Canabal was 2-for-4, while VanVranken, catching the second game, and LF Alex Angus each went 2-for-5. Ten of NYIT's hits were singles, with VanVranken and RF Joe Daru each accounting for a double.
 
Bouck and Swim (1-for-4) each had run-scoring singles in the first inning for the Highlanders and Bickert drove in two runs with the first of his three doubles.
 
Daru's double down the left field line brought home Loftus with the NYIT run in the bottom of the first inning, but the Highlanders made it 7-1 with three more runs after two were out in the top of the second. Rampone, DH Stephan Halibej, Bouck, and 2B Jeff Peterson all hit consecutive singles, with Bouck and Peterson getting runs batted in, and then Bickert doubled to bring in the third run of the frame.
 
After a scoreless third inning for both teams, NJIT tacked on another run in the fourth, as Rampone led off with a triple and came home when the next batter, Halibej, hit a sacrifice fly. Down 8-1, the Bears picked up two unearned runs on one play, as Canabal and Angus both scored on a strike-three passed ball with two out in the bottom of the fourth inning.
 
The Highlanders got the two runs right back in the top of the fifth inning when Bickert, who had reached base on an error leading off, came around on Benjamin's two-out triple and Rampone later singled to score Benjamin.
 
Ahead 10-3, NJIT went scoreless over the last four innings and NYIT closed out the scoring with a run in the bottom of the ninth. VanVranken led off with a double, advanced to third base on a wild pitch and scored on a Canabal ground out.
 
Weather, construction, and the way the games played out altered the configuration of the series. It was originally scheduled for one nine-inning game on Friday and a doubleheader (one seven-inning game followed by one nine-inning game) on Saturday, all in Newark, and then a single nine-inning game on Sunday at NYIT.
 
However, Friday's action, slated for Newark, was rained out. The doubleheader went as scheduled on Saturday in Newark. However, the first game, slated for seven innings, went nine, invoking a conference rule that made the second game a seven-inning contest. NJIT won both Saturday games by 6-5 scores. With one day left to play two games, the series shifted to Long Island. NYIT's field is under construction, so the Sunday games were played on Dowling's field. However, NJIT batted as the home team in the opening game and NYIT batted as the home team in the second game.
 
The Highlanders will play their next two series, both four-game Great West Conference sets, far from home. NJIT will visit Northern Colorado from April 19 to 21 and then Texas-Pan American from April 26 to 28.