Box score

EDINBURG, TX—Texas-Pan American tightened its grip on first place in the Great West Conference baseball standings with a 13-2 win over visiting NJIT Friday night at the Edinburg Baseball Stadium in a game shortened to seven innings by the GWC's 10-run rule.
 
The Broncs, 11-2 in the Great West and 20-18 overall, scored at least one run in each of the first five innings, reaching four runs in both the second and fourth innings, and three in the fifth. NJIT (6-7 GWC, 13-22 overall) took a short-lived lead with two unearned runs in the top of the first inning, but went on to absorb its third consecutive run-rule conference defeat. The conference run rule halts the contest as soon as one team has a lead of at least 10 runs and the team that trails has made at least 21 outs.
 
The winning pitcher was UTPA's junior ace Sam Street, who upped his record in his first season at Texas-Pan American to 8-1 with seven innings of three-hit, complete-game pitching. Street, a 6-foot-3 right-hander from Australia, struck out nine and walked two. His two runs allowed were unearned.
 
The NJIT starter, senior LHP Tripp Davis, a two-time all-conference first-team honoree, took his seventh loss in eight decisions, allowing nine earned runs on nine hits and three walks in 3.2 innings. Junior RHP Joe Fasano surrendered three more runs in 1.1 innings of relief before senior RHP Kyle Burdi finally solved the Broncs, pitching a scoreless bottom of the sixth inning, while allowing a hit and a walk to go with one strikeout.
 
For the Broncs, 2B Riley Goulding, LF Alex Howe, and RF Derek Hagy all led the 13-hit UTPA attack with three hits apiece. Howe, who hit a double in going 3-for-5, drove in four runs. CF Shane Ammon (1-for-2) scored three runs, as did Goulding and Hagy. 3B Dillon Engelhart, Hagy, and DH Alberto Morales (1-for-2; home run, his third of 2013) drove in two runs each,
 
NJIT, which finished with three hits, got one each from LF Teddy Bickert, SS Mike Rampone, and DH Tom Bouck. Rampone's hit was a double and the other two were singles.
 
The Highlanders got what would be their only two runs with a lot of help from UTPA in the top of the first inning. Bickert reached base on an error leading off the game and Rampone, the next batter, was hit by a pitch. The two moved up a base each on a Street wild pitch and Bickert scored on 1B Matt Weckerle's ground out and Rampone later scored on a sacrifice fly by CF Ed Charlton.
 
The first NJIT came when Bouck opened the fourth inning with a single; Rampone doubled with one out in the fifth inning, but was left there when the inning ended; the final hit came in the top of the seventh, when Bickert singled with one out and a man on base, but Street notched a strikeout and a fly out to end the game.
 
Texas-Pan Am got its first run, unearned, in the first inning, which included a hit and then a catcher's interference to open the bottom of the frame. Both runners moved up a base on a ground out and Engelhart drove in the run on another ground out.
 
UTPA scored four two-out runs in the bottom of the second inning to go ahead for good, Goulding singled to drive in the tying run and Howe followed him with a two-run single, while Engelhart picked up his second RBI in as many innings with a run-scoring single.
 
The Broncs extended their lead to 6-2 with a two-out run in the bottom of the third and then blew the game completely open with four runs in the fourth and three more in the fifth. Howe doubled home one run in the fourth inning, which also included the two-run homer to left field by Morales. Fasano, who faced one batter and got the final out in the fourth inning, was touched for three in the fifth inning, as Howe singled home one run and Nagy drove in the last two runs with a single.
 
The teams are scheduled to continue the four-game conference series with a doubleheader on Saturday afternoon. The seven-inning first game is set for a 3 pm (CDT) first pitch, with a nine-inning nightcap to follow.