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ABILENE, TX—NJIT opened its 2014 season with two losses Saturday on the first day of the Al Scott Memorial Baseball Classic hosted by Abilene Christian at Crutcher Scott Field. The Highlanders lost their first game to Central Arkansas, 17-7, and then lost to the hosts, 10-1.
 
The Highlanders, who were slated to open with four games in Durham, NC, against North Carolina Central last weekend, saw that series wiped out by the huge snowstorm that hit most of the East Coast. That turned the two-day, four-game tournament this weekend in Texas into the curtain-raiser for NJIT baseball.
 
Although the piles of snow that have dropped on Newark all winter have kept the Highlanders indoors in preseason, they did well early on in their first taste of playing outdoors in Texas.
 
The Highlanders built a 7-0 lead over Central Arkansas through four innings. But then things unraveled against the Bears (3-3), who, like Abilene Christian, are part of the Southland Conference. Central Arkansas scored six times in the fifth inning to get within a run of the lead before adding six more in the sixth to go ahead. In all, the Bears poured 17 unanswered runs after the fourth for the 17-7 rout.
 
Except for a lone run in the top of the first inning that gave NJIT a brief 1-0 advantage, there was never much of a lead to let slip away when the Highlanders fell to host Abilene Christian, 10-1. The Wildcats (4-1) scored three runs in the bottom of the first, four in the second and three more in the fifth.
 
The opening-game loss went to NJIT redshirt senior RHP DJ Roche (0-1), who appeared in a college game for the first time since 2012, when he underwent Tommy John surgery on his right elbow. A hard thrower who posted a 3-4 record and a 4.02 earned run average in 2012 before surgery, Roche rehabbed the entire 2013 college season. However, he was an all-star in the 2013 Futures Collegiate Baseball League last summer in Massachusetts.
 
He allowed no runs and one hit through four innings Saturday, but four walks in the fifth inning (seven overall) were killers for Roche, who departed with one out in the fifth. His final line was: 4.1 innings, 2 hits, 5 runs (all earned), 7 walks, and 7 strikeouts.
 
The loss went to another redshirt senior, lefty Austin McAuliffe who pitched one inning in 2013 due to injury. His return was a struggle, as he allowed 6 runs in one inning. By comparison, at the top of his game in 2012, McAuliffe yielded just 9 runs all year in 22 innings covering 19 games.
 
Freshman Brian Sondergard followed and gave up 3 runs in 1.1 innings of his college debut and redshirt senior Frank Shivers who was limited to 2.1 innings himself in 2013, allowed 3 runs on 6 hits over the final 2.1 innings.
 
The win went to the second of three Central Arkansas pitchers, freshman RHP Riley Echols, who earned his first college win with 4.1 innings of scoreless, 1-hit pitching.
 
NJIT had 9 hits in the game vs. Central Arkansas, including a home run by redshirt sophomore DH Stefan Halibej (2-for-4) and doubles by junior CF Ed Charlton (1-for-2) and freshman C Cody Kramer (1-for-1 off the bench).
 
Halibej and redshirt senior LF Teddy Bickert (2-for-5) each drove in a pair of runs and junior SS Mike Rampone was 2-for-3 with two walks. Charlton also drew a pair of free passes.
 
Central Arkansas, which finished with 16 hits, got a game-high three from C Charles Deckard (3-for-5). Five different Bears had two hits each, including sub DH Chris Townsend (2-for-2, 4 RBI), RF Tyler Langley (2-for-6, 4 RBI), and SS Justin Treece (2-for-4, 3 RBI). Treece had a triple and Deckard doubled. 1B Scott Zimmerle only had one hit, a double, but he scored three runs and drove in the same number.
 
For NJIT, Rampone singled for an RBI in the bottom of the first inning and Bickert hit a two-run single to key the three-run second. In the fourth inning, Halibej hit the first home run of 2014 for the Highlanders, a two-run shot ahead of an RBI single for sophomore 3B Nick Swim, staking the Highlanders to a 7-0 advantage that more than disappeared when the Bears scored 16 times from the fifth through seventh frames.
 
In their second game of the day, the Highlanders managed only one run and four hits in six innings against Abilene Christian sophomore RHP Garrett Demeyere (2-0). Three Wildcat relievers nailed down the win with a combined three innings of one-hit shutout ball.
 
The loss went to the NJIT starter, sophomore LHP Ian Bentley, who started after making 18 relief appearances and one start as a freshman in 2013, earning Division I Rookie All-State honors from the New Jersey Collegiate Baseball Association. Against Abilene Christian, Bentley was tagged for 10 runs on 10 hits and 5 walks in 4 innings.
 
On the plus side, freshman RHP Pat Geraghty made his college debut with three near-spotless innings (no hits or runs and one walk). Redshirt junior LHP Tyler Kapp finished up with a scoreless, hitless inning of his own.
 
Freshman 2B Bryan Haberstroh collected two of NJIT's five hits in the game, going 2-for-4, while Bickert was 1-for-4, on a homer to left field leading off the game.
 
Freshman LF Brandon Grudzialanek, nephew of Mark Grudzialanek, who had over 2,000 hits in a 15-year big league career, was 3-for-4 to lead ACU against the Highlanders. RF Seth Spivey (2-for-3) and 1B Russell Crippen (2-for-2; 2 RBI) also had multiple-hit games for the Wildcats.
 
After Bickert's home run in the top of the first, Grudzialanek drove home two on a single in the host team's three-run bottom half.  Crippen doubled for two of ACU's four second-inning runs and Spivey singled home a run, SS Aaron Draper had another run-scoring single and 3B Kyle Giusti (1-for-3, 2 runs) capped the scoring with a sacrifice fly RBI.
 
Central Arkansas, which topped Abilene Christian in Saturday's other game, 6-4, finished 2013 at 42-22 in a season that ended in the NCAA Tournament Regional held at Mississippi State.
 
NJIT became a part of Abilene Christian baseball history with Saturday's loss. A longtime power in NCAA Division II baseball, the Wildcats are in their first season as a newly-minted member of Division I. They are 4-1 in 2014, but the prior three wins came against Arlington Baptist, which is not an NCAA member. The win over the Highlanders was Abilene Christian's first over another Division I program since the Wildcats became one themselves.  
 
The tournament continues Sunday in Abilene Chrsitian's 4,000-seat on campus venue, Crutcher Scott Field.  NJIT takes on Central Arkansas again at 11 am (CST) on Sunday and then ASU at 4 pm (CST).