2013 Great West Tournament Bracket

Live tournament coverage note:

There will be live video, audio, and live stats for all games of all teams, which can be accessed from the main page of www.njithighlanders.com in the gray box in the upper right corner. The three icons (l-r) are for audio, video, and live stats. The service is free.

The audio feed, in most cases, will be provided by the regular announcer of the higher seeded team. The participating schools will have coverage on their respective websites and coverage is also available on the official conference website www.greatwestconference.org.

NEWARK, NJ—NJIT will host the Great West Conference baseball championship tournament this week at Bears and Eagles Riverfront Stadium in downtown Newark, with competition set to begin at 9 am on Tuesday and continue through to Saturday with the crowning of the 2013 champion.
 
All eight conference teams will participate in the double-elimination event, with regular season champion Northern Colorado (20-7 Great West; 29-22 overall) coming in as the top seed. The Bears will take on eighth-seeded Chicago State (5-23 GWC; 8-43) at 12:15 pm. Action begins Tuesday with the 9 am game between fourth-seeded three-time defending champion Utah Valley (15-9 GWC; 24-28) against #5 North Dakota (13-11 GWC; 23-20-1). Texas-Pan American (#2; 17-10 GWC; 27-28) plays NYIT (#7; 8-20 GWC; 10-45) at 3:30 pm and NJIT, as the host, will play in the night game. The Highlanders (#6; 11-16 GWC; 19-32) will go up against #3 Houston Baptist (17-10 GWC; 30-24-1). HBU, which comes in having won nine of its last 10 regular season games, took 3-of-4 from the Highlanders in the final regular season series last weekend.
 
Wednesday will bring four more games, with teams being divided into a winners' bracket and a losers' bracket based on the Tuesday results. As teams are eliminated, the schedule will go to three games on Thursday, two games on Friday and, on Saturday, either one or two games (two only if the team that reaches Saturday unbeaten loses its first Saturday game).
 
NJIT, having gone 9-6 from March 30 to April 20, including a split of its first two games against eventual regular season GWC champ Northern Colorado, has not fared well since then, going 5-13 over the final 18 regular season games.
 
However, with pitching being an all-important commodity, the Highlanders are well-positioned with their  combo of senior starters Tripp Davis, a left-hander, and right-hander Mark Leiter, Jr. The duo, who are one-two in nearly all of the important school Division I pitching records, have spent their entire college careers giving their team a chance to win every time they take the mound.
 
Leiter, who struck out 20 against Chicago State on May 3 for a new school record and the nation's highest single-game total this season in Division I, owns a 5-8 record with a 4.37 ERA and 101 strikeouts in 90.2 innings. He has five complete games and seven or more strikeouts in eight of his starts.
 
Davis, a two-time All-GWC first-team honoree, has won each of his last three starts after beginning the season 1-7 (he also had a loss or no decision in five starts of at least six innings where he allowed two, or fewer earned runs). His record stands at 4-7 with 4.57 ERA in 90.2 innings. He was 4-3 in conference games this year.
 
The top Highlander batting average belongs to outfielder Teddy Bickert (.357), who made a remarkable comeback from a wrist injury that limited him to four games played and five at-bats through April 10 in a season that began on February 17. Returning to the starting lineup on April 13, Bickert logged 84 at-bats in the season and still finished with 11 doubles and 16 runs batted in, even though a lot of his plate appearances came as the leadoff batter.
 
First baseman Tom Bouck, who was especially hot in the latter part of the season, batted .328, with 21 runs batted in and two homers, both of which came in the final series. In conference play, Bouck hit a blistering .394 and got 18 of his RBI in the 23 conference games he played.
 
Center fielder Ed Charlton, the team's best all-around player, fought through a hamstring injury that kept him out of seven games, finishing the regular season at .304, with 7 doubles, 4 triples and a share of the team home run lead (3). He drove in 23 runs and led the team in stolen bases by a wide margin, successfully swiping 16 bags in 19 tries.
 
The team RBI lead was shared at 26 by sophomore infielder Mike Rampone (.267, 10 2B, 1 1B, 1 HR) and redshirt freshman Stephan Halibej, who was mostly a designated hitter, but also saw action at first base and catcher in a small handful of games.
 
Halibej, who missed the entire 2012 season due to injury, started slowly as he shook off the rust and adjusted to a new level of competition and was batting under .200 as late as March 30, with 17 college games under his belt. However, he went 2-for-4 in a non-conference win over Fairfield on April 3, pushing his average to .211. It was a steady climb after that, as the average reached a peak of .293 in the final series vs. Houston Baptist. The regular season totals were a .279 average, with a team-best 12 doubles, 3 home runs and 26 RBI. He batted .329 in conference games.
 
Rampone, who played almost exclusively at second base as a freshman, was shuffled around the infield due to injuries and fielding difficulties for other players in his sophomore year. Much like Halibej, Rampone struggled at the plate early and was batting just .184 at the end of March. However, he turned things around in April and had added almost 100 points to his batting average by the end of the month. A combined 0-for-6 in the last two games vs. Houston Baptist dropped his season's average to .267, but he still finished a strong .327, with 7 doubles, a triple, and a home run in 26 GWC games. His seven steals overall were good for second on the team behind Charlton.
 
The remainder of the hitters are batting under .240, but Scott Brosman (.237) has hit two grand slams (tied for the team lead with three total homers) and driven in 16 runs. Matt Weckerle hasn't been able to find his groove at the plate this year (.213/1 HR/21 RBI), but he is just one year removed from a .313 average with 10 doubles, 3 triples, 3 home runs and 34 RBI (2nd on the 2012 team).
 
On the mound after Leiter and Davis, NJIT has junior RHP Matt Coughlin (4-5, 4.02 ERA—leads NJIT starters), sophomore RHP Bill VanMeerbeke (3-7), and freshman LHP Ian Bentley (3-2, 5 saves, 6.39 ERA). Bentley, named to the NJ College Baseball Association Division I All-Rookie team, has generally been more effective than his stats, particularly ERA,, indicate. He has had two streaks of four consecutive scoreless appearances, but his ERA has been inflated by five rough outings in his 17 total appearances. He has 10 scoreless appearances (25.1 innings) and two more where he allowed one run (4 innings total).
 
Tickets for the Great West Conference Tournament are priced at $5 for a one-day pass and $15 for a full-tournament pass. All tickets will be sold at the stadium and there will be no complimentary tickets issued.