Box score

GRAND FORKS, ND--North Dakota broke a scoreless tie with three runs in the bottom of the fourth inning, added another run and then held off visiting NJIT late for a 4-2 win in the finale of a Great West Conference baseball series between the teams Sunday afternoon at Kraft Memorial Field.
 
North Dakota, one of the hottest teams in the Great West, took three of four in the weekend series that included a blowout win in the opener on Friday, followed by three games that could have gone either way. The teams split a Saturday doubleheader in two close games and then wrapped up with UND's 4-2 win on Sunday.
 
North Dakota is now 10-10 in the Great West and 20-19-1 overall, its best record since moving up to NCAA Division I from Division II. UND has won seven of its last nine games. NJIT, meanwhile, is 10-13 in the Great West and 18-29 overall, with one four-game regular season series remaining, plus the double-elimination Great West Conference championship tournament.
 
The Highlanders will play the remainder of their 2013 games at home, hosting Houston Baptist for four games to wrap up the regular season beginning Thursday at 1 pm and then hosting the eight-team GWC Tournament from May 21 to May 25 at Bears and Eagles Riverfront Stadium.
 
Although it won three of the four games this weekend, North Dakota trailed early in each game until Sunday, when it scored three times in the fourth frame and once in the fifth inning for a 4-0 lead. NJIT chipped away late, scoring once and leaving two men on base in the top of the seventh inning and then scoring again and bringing the potential tying run to the plate, but falling short in the ninth inning.
 
The complete-game win went to North Dakota sophomore right-hander Jeff Campbell (3-6), who scattered nine hits, allowing two runs with eight strikeouts and two walks.
 
NJIT's starter, junior RHP Matt Coughlin, was tagged with the loss, going to 4-4 on the year after yielding all four UND runs and nine hits, with two walks and a strikeout in 5.1 innings. Freshman left-hander Ian Bentley blanked the home team on two hits over the final 2.2 innings.
 
North Dakota rapped out 11 hits, including a pair of doubles, as four players collected two hits apiece. Three of the four were in the lower part of the batting order, which did damage throughout the series. The leadoff man, 2B Patrick Vandoorne, was 2-for-5, while sixth hitter 3B Tyler Follis was 2-for-3, seventh-place hitter SS Daniel Lockhert was 2-for-4, and LF Matt Wehrli, batting eighth, was 2-for-3. 1B Ryan Reese (1-for-3) accounted for one UND double and C Taylor Petersen (1-for-4) had the other. Vandoorne, Follis, Lockhert, and CF Jacob Threlkeld (1-for-3 batting ninth) all chipped in with one RBI apiece.
 
The Highlanders, with nine total hits in the game, got three each from DH Stephan Halibej (3-for-4, double) and 2B Jeff Peterson (3-for-4, RBI). Halibej's double was his 12th, giving him the team lead. Out of action for three weeks in March, Peterson has had a streaky season at the plate, before and after his absence. This weekend he was hot as he's been all year, going 8-for-15 (.533), with a double, his first home run of the season (fourth career), and five runs batted in.
 
North Dakota stranded a base runner in each of the first three innings before breaking through with three runs in the bottom of the fourth inning. UND got a leadoff walk to RF Zack Trygstad, an out, and a bunt single by Follis, setting up the first run, which came in on a single by Lockhert. Threlkeld and Vandoorne had run-scoring singles later in the inning.
 
Petersen, the UND catcher, led off his team's half of the fifth inning with a double and later scored on a sacrifice fly by Follis that staked the home team to a 4-0 advantage.
 
NJIT finally scored in the top of the seventh inning. Halibej led off with a double, moved to third on a ground out and came in on Peterson's infield single. C Zack Renna added another hit with one out, but the Highlanders couldn't get any more runs across the plate in the seventh.
 
The 4-1 score held until the ninth inning, when NJIT added a run and threatened for more that ultimately never came. Halibej opened with a single, but was replaced on the bases by 3B Nick Swim, who grounded into a force out. Swim moved to second base on a wild pitch and ahead to third on another infield single by Peterson. The second wild pitch of the inning allowed Swim to score and Peterson also moved up to second base on the play. However, pinch hitter Scott Brosman flied out and Peterson was caught off of second base for a game-ending double play.
 
NJIT's final regular season series will vary from the normal conference format. Instead of going from Friday through Sunday, NJIT and Houston Baptist will play the upcoming series from Thursday through Saturday, all with early starts. The schedule calls for a doubleheader game at 1 pm on Thursday, a noon single game on Friday, and a single game at noon on Saturday, which will be Senior Day.