Box score (Game 1)

Box score (Game 2)

NEWARK, NJ—It was an afternoon of contrasts Saturday at Bears and Eagles Riverfront Stadium in a Great West Conference baseball doubleheader split between NJIT and visiting Chicago State. With Tripp Davis pitching a complete-game two-hitter, the Highlanders took the seven-inning opening game, 2-1, but Chicago State bounced back for an 11-7 victory in the nine-inning nightcap.
 
The split left NJIT, which won the series opener Friday night, with an 8-10 record in the Great West and a 16-26 mark overall. Chicago State, which snapped an 11-game slide in the nightcap, is 4-15 in the Great West and 7-34 overall. The Cougars' win was just their second in 26 road contests this season.
 
A day after NJIT's top right-hander, Mark Leiter, Jr. , set a new 2013 national Division I-high with 20 strikeouts in a 5-3 four-hit win over CSU Saturday night, Davis, the team's top left-hander, tossed his two-hitter, striking out nine in his best outing of the year. The Chicago State starter in Saturday's opener, sophomore RHP Andrew Wellwerts also pitched a terrific game, limiting the home team to four hits, but he wasn't quite as good as Davis and was tagged with a complete-game loss.
 
Saturday's second game was nothing like the first two in the series, especially from NJIT's point of view, as Chicago State combined 12 hits—11 singles and a double—with three walks and five Highlander errors for 11 runs (seven earned). For its part, NJIT had 11 hits, nine of which were singles, three walks, two hit-by-pitch, and a couple of CSU errors to plate seven runs (five earned).
 
Game 1
Both starting pitchers controlled the action throughout. But in the end, NJIT's Davis (2-7) had a bit more than Chicago State's Wellwerts (2-8). Both starters tossed complete games, with Davis allowing a run on two hits and two walks in seven innings, while striking out nine. Wellwerts, who pitched six innings, gave up four hits and two walks, plus three crucial hit batters, for a total of two runs with six strikeouts.
 
The visiting Cougars took the early lead in the top of the second inning with what would be their only run. NJIT tied the score with a run in the bottom of the third it remained 1-1 until the Highlanders forced across what would be the winning run on a bases-loaded one-out walk to 3B Nick Swim in the bottom of the sixth inning.
 
Chicago State grabbed the 1-0 edge in the top of the second, which saw CSU's only two hits of the game off of Davis. DH Dylan Sterrett singled leading off and, after two strikeouts, 1B Ray Cekus delivered the game's only extra-base hit for either side, pulling a hard ground ball just inside the third base bag and into the left field corner, scoring Sterrett all the way from first base.
 
NJIT got the run back in the bottom of the third when CF Ed Charlton was plunked in the shoulder with the bases loaded, forcing home a run. That came with one out, but Wellwerts induced an inning-ending double play grounder to avoid any more trouble. C Scott Brosman had opened the frame with a single and 2B Nick Rabasco followed with another single. A sacrifice advanced both runners and the run came home when first SS Mike Rampone and Charlton each took a hit-by-pitch, first loading the bases and then forcing home the go-ahead run.
 
Meanwhile, Davis who would need just 86 pitches to complete the seven-inning two-hitter, retired 14 straight batters from the third out of the second inning through the first out of the seventh. Indeed, he retired 16 of the last 17 in the game, interrupted only by a one-out walk in the top of the seventh.
 
NJIT, which managed just one hit after the third inning, finally broke the tie in the sixth. Rampone opened with a single and stole second ahead of a walk to Charlton. Another successful sacrifice put both runners in scoring position before DH Stephan Halibej took his team's third hit-by-pitch of the day, loading the bases with one out. Swim then walked on five pitches, forcing home what would be the winning run. Wellwerts then struck out the next two batters with the bases loaded to preserve the one-run differential.
 
Game 2
The Cougars opened the second game with a run in the top of the first before NJIT jumped into the lead with two in the bottom of the second inning. CSU knotted the score with a run in the fourth and then pushed ahead, 7-2, with five runs on six hits in the top of the fifth inning. NJIT got one run back in the bottom of the fifth, but Chicago State all but put the game away with four more runs in a chaotic top of the sixth.
 
Down 11-3 going to the bottom of the eighth, the Highlanders picked up four runs, but the second CSU pitcher, sophomore RHP Jerry Silva, who had entered during the four-run bottom of the eighth, came up with a 1-2-3 ninth inning to secure the win, which went to sophomore RHP Eric Hall, who pitched the first 7.1 innings for his second win in 11 decisions.
 
Hall allowed all seven NJIT runs (five earned) on seven hits, two walks, three strikeouts, and two hit batters, while Silva recorded 1.2 innings, with one hit and one walk.
 
The NJIT starter, junior RHP Matt Coughlin (4-3), took the loss on 10 hits and seven runs (six earned) in five innings. His classmate, RHP Joe Fasano, pitched the last four frames and allowed four runs (one earned) in the sixth, but then settled down for three scoreless innings, allowing twos hit and two walks, with four strikeouts.
 
Four different Cougars had multiple-hit games in the nightcap, paced by 3B Joelh Calixto's 3-for-5, with an RBI. SS Julian Russell was 2-for-4 with three runs scored; C Eric O'Brien was 2-for-4 with one scored and one driven in; and 2B William Munoz also drove in a run and scored one in a 2-for-3 game.
 
NJIT, with 11 hits, topped Halibej's was 2-for-3, with a double; 1B Tom Bouck's 2-for-2, including a double; and 2B Nick Rabasco's 2-for-4.
 
Chicago State got an unearned run in the opening half-inning. With one out, Russell lined a double to left field. An NJIT error on the next batted ball put runners on first and third, setting up RF Aveeno Nasiloski (1-for-3, 2 runs, 2 RBI) for a sacrifice fly to center field.
 
NJIT picked up its first two runs in the bottom of the second inning. Halibej reached base on a catcher's interference leading off and Bouck followed with a double to the fence in right center field. SS Nick Swim then bounced out, bringing home Halibej with the unearned run to tie the score, and the next batter, Brosman, singled to plate Bouck with the go-ahead tally.
 
The Cougars drew even with one run in the top of the fourth. Calixtoh and Munoz opened the frame with singles. LF Jeremy Legania then dropped down a bunt that Swim, the NJIT third baseman, was on quickly. Looking for a force out, Swim fired to third base, but the umpire ruled Calixtoh safe on the close play, loading the bases with no one out. Coughlin induced a double play from the next batter, but Calixto crossed the plate on the play.
 
The earlier close call on the bunt play became a footnote when Chicago State scored five runs on six hits, all singles, for a 7-2 advantage in the top of the fifth. Nasiloski, Calixto, Munoz, and Cekus all delivered run-scoring singles and Legania drove in a run with a ground out.
 
NJIT scored an unearned run in the bottom of the fifth inning and had the bases loaded before hitting into another inning-ending double play. Charlton reached on an error, stole second and scored on a single by RF Matt Weckerle before CSU's Hall escaped the jam with a 6-4-3 ground ball double play, holding the Highlanders to one run.
 
Things turned still worse for NJIT in the top of the sixth inning, when CSU met Fasano with four more runs on just one hit. Fasano, who allowed a single to CF Nathan Poff leading off, got what looked like a perfect double play ball to shortstop, but the ball was booted for the Highlanders' fourth miscue of the game. With the door cracked open, the Cougars barged through without getting another hit in the inning. O'Brien drove in the first run of the frame with a sacrifice fly and the next three scored on a one-run passed ball and then on a two-run strikeout-wild pitch play with runners on base.   
 
With Fasano still and pitching what would become three scoreless innings to finish, NJIT got back within hailing distance thanks to a four-run bottom of the eighth inning. Halibej opened with a double and then scored on a single by Bouck. Swim singled and, after a strikeout, Rabasco singled to load the bases. LF Teddy Bickert then hit a slow roller for an out that brought home another run and Mike Rampone's two-out infield single on a close play at first base brought home two more tallies with the runners moving on contact.
 
The teams will wrap up the series at Bears and Eagles Riverfront Stadium with a single game at noon on Sunday.