Box Score

NEWARK, NJ—NJIT senior right-hander Mark Leiter, Jr. struck out 20 Chicago State batters in a nine-inning 5-3 win for the Highlanders Friday night. Leiter's 20 strikeouts were the most nationally in a 2013 NCAA Division I game and the most in NJIT program history.
 
Leiter's record-setting performance keyed his team's win in the first of a four-game weekend Great West Conference baseball series at Bears and Eagles Riverfront Stadium. NJIT is 7-9 in conference play and 15-25 overall, while the visiting Cougars fall to 3-14 in the GWC and 6-33 overall.
 
Leiter (5-6) struck out at least two in every inning but the first, when he struck out one. He struck out the side in the second, eighth, and ninth innings and got his last eight outs via strikeout, with one walk in the eighth inning and another in the ninth mixed in.
 
His final line Friday was: 9 innings, 4 hits, 3 runs (2 earned), 20 strikeouts and 2 walks. The three runs came on one swing of the bat, a three-run homer for Chicago State's Dylan Sterrett, who served as the designated hitter and was also the losing pitcher, working the first seven innings. The home run, to left field, came in the top of the seventh inning with one out.
 


Sterrett (1-9), a junior right-hander, pitched the first seven innings for Chicago State and allowed nine hits and five runs (four earned), with eight strikeouts and five walks. Sophomore RHP Jerry Silva finished for the Cougars, pitching a 1-2-3 bottom of the eighth inning.
 
NJIT, with nine total hits, including three doubles, got two knocks apiece from senior LF Teddy Bickert (2-for-5, 2 RBI), sophomore CF Ed Charlton (2-for-4), and freshman 3B Nick Swim (2-for-3, 2 RBI, sac fly). Bickert, 2B Nick Rabasco (1-for-3), and DH Stephan Halibej (1-for-2) accounted for the three Highlander doubles.
 
CSU had singles for 3B Mattingly Romanin, 2B William Munoz, and CF Nathan Poff to go with the Sterrett home run, his first of the year. Three of the four hits Chicago State managed against Leiter came in the three-run seventh inning.
 
After a scoreless first inning, NJIT broke through for a pair of runs in the bottom of the second. After a leadoff out, Swim and SS Jeff Peterson singled back-to-back. Swim advanced on a wild pitch and Peterson, who had held at first base on the wild pitch, soon stole second. After the second out of the inning, Bickert singled to drive in a pair of wins.
 
The Highlanders picked up another run in the third inning, but they also left the bases loaded. Charlton led off with a single and went on to second when the ball got away from the left fielder for an error. Charlton moved up a base on the first out of the inning and, after a walk, Charlton scored on Swim's RBI single up the middle. NJIT added another runner to load the bases with one out, but Sterrett avoided any further damage by getting the last two outs.
 
NJIT made it 4-0 with a tally in the bottom of the fifth. Halibej reached base on a one-out walk, moved up two bases on Sterrett's first wild pitch of the frame and later scored on the second wild pitch of the inning.
 
Leiter was rolling through the first six innings, blanking Chicago State on one hit, while fanning 12 to that point. However, the Cougars got three runs back with one swing by Sterrett. Romanin led off the seventh with a single and the next batter, C Eric O'Brien, was awarded first base on catcher's interference. After an out, Sterrett emptied the bases with a shot over the left field fence. Leiter allowed a single to the next batter, Munoz, but then struck out the next two batters to preserve his 4-3 lead.
 
The Highlanders gained a shade more breathing room with a run in the bottom of the seventh. With one out, 1B Tom Bouck walked and Halibej followed with a deep double over the center fielder's head. Andrew Benjamin came on as a pinch runner for Bouck at third base and scored on Swim's one-out sacrifice fly.
 
Leiter did the rest, notching six strikeouts to go with his only two walks of the game to nail down the record-setting victory.
 
Leiter's previous career-high for strikeouts was 14 (the NJIT school Division I record until Friday night), also at home against Chicago State in a seven-inning win on May 19, 2011. The previous national season high for strikeouts in a 2013 Division I game was 18 by Pat Young of Villanova, also against Chicago State on March 15. Leiter's strikeout high this year was nine in eight innings against New York Institute of Technology on April 13.
 
The series will continue Saturday with a 1 pm doubleheader at Bears and Eagles Riverfront Stadium.