Box score (Game 1)

Box score (Game 2)

NEWARK, NJ—NJIT and visiting Houston Baptist split a Great West Conference baseball doubleheader Thursday afternoon at Bears and Eagles Riverfront Stadium. The visiting Huskies took the seven-inning opener by a somewhat misleading 7-5 final score and the Highlanders earned the split, 5-3, behind a complete-game effort by senior left-hander Tripp Davis in the final regular season game of his career.
 
Thursday's results left Houston Baptist at 15-10 in the Great West Conference and 28-24-1 overall, while NJIT is 11-14 in the Great West and 19-30 overall.
 
The NJIT starting pitchers on Thursday, Davis in the nightcap and Mark Leiter, Jr. in the opener, have been co-aces for the Highlanders since their freshman seasons in 2010, but on this day, they got different won-lost results in their last career regular season starts.
 
Leiter (5-8) gave up two first-inning runs and then engaged in a pitchers' duel with Houston Baptist junior RHP Ryan Lower, as Leiter blanked the Huskies for four straight innings and Lower (7-4) held NJIT to one run through the first five innings, making it 2-1, HBU, through five.
 
However, the visitors broke out for four runs against Leiter in the sixth inning and added another in the top of the seventh off of Highlander reliever Joe Fasano for a 7-1 advantage before the Highlanders scored four times in the bottom of the seventh against Huskies reliever Jake Gonzalez for the 7-5 final.
 
In the second game, Davis (4-7) had just one tough inning, the fourth, when he allowed all three HBU runs, and wrapped up the complete-game win with just 104 pitches, with seven hits, three walks and seven strikeouts. Houston Baptist used three pitchers, with the loss going to starter Matthew McCollough, a freshman left-hander, who gave up all five NJIT runs in five innings. He allowed 10 hits and struck out four in falling to 2-2, while relievers Matt Harding and Josh Martinez combined to hold the Highlanders scoreless on three hits over the last three frames.
 
NJIT took a 5-0 lead through three innings of the nightcap and it was enough for the win, even though the Huskies scored three times in the fourth inning. However, no one scored the rest of the way, giving the Highlanders the split.
 
Three NJIT players produced four hits in the twin bill, led by 1B Tom Bouck (4-for-8, double, home run), whose three-run shot made things interesting in the last inning of the opener. SS Mike Rampone and CF Ed Charlton each went 4-for-9 and Charlton, who hit the ball hard all day, could have had more if not for Gonzalez, the Huskies center fielder, who laid out to make a running catch with his back to the plate on a drive by Charlton to dead center field with one out and a runner on base in the second inning of the nightcap. Redshirt freshman DH Stephan Halibej also hit his third homer of 2013 in the second-game win.
 
Jordan McCoy, HBU's cleanup hitter and right fielder, was 4-for-7 on the day, including a double, in the doubleheader. 3B Curtis Jones and Gonzalez each went 3-for-6 and each homered--for Jones, his first of the season in the opener and for Gonzalez, who also hit two doubles, his third home run of the year, in the nightcap.  
 
Game 1
The seven-inning opener was close until the top of the sixth inning, when Houston Baptist scored four runs, extending a 2-1 lead to 6-1. The Huskies added another run in the top of the seventh before NJIT came up with four runs of its own in the bottom half before falling short, 7-5.
 
The winning pitcher was the HBU starter, Lower, who allowed one run on five hits, with five strikeouts and no walks through six innings. Jake Gonzalez, who played the first six innings in center field, allowed four unearned runs on three hits and a strikeout in the seventh.
 
Leiter took the loss after pitching six innings and allowing eight hits and six runs (five earned), with nine strikeouts and three walks. Fasano allowed a seventh-inning run on three hits in relief.
 
Three different Huskies had two-hit games: Jones (2-for-3, double, 2 runs, RBI); McCoy (2-for-3, double, 2 runs); and, Gonzalez (2-for-3, 2 doubles, 2 RBI). Bradley Brown, who entered the game as a pinch hitter and remained at first base, stroked a two-run single in his pinch-hit at-bat.
 
The Highlanders had eight hits, topped by 2-for-4 from Rampone, with Bouck's three-run homer in the bottom of the seventh representing their only extra-base hit.
 
HBU struck for two runs in the opening frame on a two-out double toward the right field corner by Gonzalez. With one out, Jones was hit by a pitch and then stole second. Leiter picked up his first strikeout of the game, but then walked McCoy. That brought up Gonzalez, who hit a well-placed soft liner into right field, where NJIT's Matt Weckerle had trouble handling after he ran the ball down close to the right field line. With the runners going on contact, both runs came in on the play that was scored a double and an error for allowing the second run to score.
 
NJIT got a run back in the bottom of the second inning, as LF Teddy Bickert took a one-out hit-by-pitch, advanced one base on a ground out and another base on 3B Nick Swim's infield single. Bickert scored on a line drive single by C Zack Renna, just beyond the reach of HBU's leaping third baseman, Jones, who managed only to get the tip of his glove on the ball.
 
The Huskies put some distance between themselves and the home team with a four-run sixth inning. Jones led off with a no-doubt-about-it home run high over the left field fence and HBU added three more runs in the frame on a two-run pinch-hit double by Brown and a run-scoring single for DH Josh Martinez.
 
HBU added another run in the seventh inning against Fasano, with Gonzalez adding another RBI with a two-out double.
 
The Highlanders posted four seventh-inning runs against Gonzalez, who came to the mound in the bottom of the seventh from his previous post in center field. Halibej singled through the left side to drive in a run and Bouck the empied the bases with a towering three-run shot over the right field fence. The homer for Bouck, who hit six in 2012, was his first this season.
 
Game 2
Davis, who put up eight zeros in nine innings, allowing just the three-run fourth inning, was staked to a 5-0 lead after three innings. Although NJIT was held scoreless the rest of the way, the two-time All-GWC first-team lefty took care of the rest.
 
Charlton and Bouck each got three hits and one of the outs for Charlton (3-for-5) come on the spectacular catch in center field by Gonzalez, the HBU counterpart to Charlton.   Bouck was 3-for-4, followed by a 2-for-5 from Rampone and 2-for-4 from Weckerle. Charlton, Rampone and Bouck all doubled for the Highlanders to go with the Halibej's third home run of the season
 
McCoy (2-for-4) was HBU's only batter with more than one hit against Davis and Gonzalez's two-run homer was the only extra-base hit for the Huskies in the nightcap.
 
NJIT scored twice, helped by an HBU error, in the bottom of the first inning. Charlton led off with a double after two outs, Bouck doubled to drive home the first run. The two-out error extended the inning and Weckerle cashed in, delivering an RBI single.
 
The Highlanders picked up three more runs in the bottom of the third inning, which began with Halibej's long leadoff homer into the visitors' bullpen in left center field. Bouck and Bickert followed with singles ahead of a bunt single by Weckerle. The first baseman, Bradley Brown, fielded the bunt, wheeled and threw to first base. But no one was covering the base and Brown's throw got away, allowing two runs to score.
 
NJIT's Davis ran into his only serious trouble, allowing three runs in the top of the fourth. The frame opened with two of the three walks Davis would issue in the game, and Jones, who led off with a walk, scored on a wild pitch before Gonzalez launched his one-out two-run home run over the left field fence.
 
NJIT did not score after the third inning and Houston Baptist threatened a few times, but didn't score after its three-run fourth inning.
 
The teams will wrap up the regular season with single nine-inning games on Friday and Saturday, with first pitch scheduled for noon both days at Bears and Eagles Riverfront Stadium.