Box Score 1 | Box Score 2


BRIDGEPORT, CT—Sacred Heart trailed for just half an inning the entire day, sweeping a baseball doubleheader from visiting NJIT, 8-2 and 8-3 (7 innings), Sunday afternoon at the Ballpark at Harbor Yard.
 
Sacred Heart, which lost the first game of a Saturday doubleheader between the teams (5-3) before taking the seven-inning nightcap Saturday (6-3) is 17-11 after winning three times in the four-game, two-city weekend series against NJIT. The Highlanders are 10-15.
 
Coupled with a Saturday doubleheader split in Newark on Saturday afternoon (NJIT won Game 1, 5-3; and Sacred Heart took the seven-inning nigh, the Pioneers took the final three games in the four-game weekend set between the teams. Sacred Heart is 17-11 after sweeping the Sunday doubleheader.
 
NJIT is 10-15 after losing twice on the same day for the first time since February 22, when the Highlanders opened the 2014 schedule with same-day losses in the Abilene Christian tournament, first to Central Arkansas and then to the hosts. Since then, NJIT has split games in one day against different teams in tournament play twice, split two conventional same-opponent doubleheaders, and swept one doubleheader (April 6 at NYIT).
 
Sacred Heart is red-hot, with Sunday's sweep of the Highlanders giving SHU a 12-3 record in its last 15 games.
 
On Sunday, which was the first home date of the season for the Pioneers, they scored two runs in the bottom of the first of the nine-inning opening game and added a run in the next frame before NJIT scored what would be its only two runs of the game in the top of third inning to trim the deficit to 3-2. But Sacred Heart tacked on a run in the bottom of the third inning and carried a 4-2 lead into the bottom of the seventh inning, when it added another run and then three more in the bottom of the eighth for a comfortable final of 8-2.
 
Sacred Heart scored once in the bottom of the first inning in Game Two and the score stayed 1-0 until the top of the fourth, when NJIT took its only lead of the day, 2-1. However, Sacred Heart answered with two runs of its own in the bottom half and then blew the score open with a four-run fifth inning. The Pioneers made it 8-2 with another run in the bottom of the sixth before NJIT picked up a run in its last at-bats in the top of the seventh inning.
 
Redshirt sophomore RHP Nick Morrissey (2-2) started and pitched six innings to get the opening-game win for Sacred Heart. He allowed six hits and two runs (both unearned), while striking out six and walking one. Senior lefty Nick Leiningen earned his first save of the season with three innings of two-hit scoreless ball.
 
The loss for NJIT went to senior starting RHP Matt Coughlin (1-1) who lasted 7.1 innings, allowing 11 hits, 8 runs (6 earned), with 4 walks and 4 strikeouts.
 
The winning pitcher in the nightcap was the second of three Sacred Heart pitchers, junior RHP Dan Wertz (2-0), who worked 1.2 scoreless innings and allowed just one hit. Starter Jason Foley pitched 3.1 innings and allowed two runs on four hits and a walk, while Leiningen, finished up for the second time and  allowed a run on three hits and a walk in the getaway game.
 
Freshman RHP Alex Daniele (2-2) started and took the loss for the Highlanders, allowing 9 hits and 7 runs, while walking 3 and striking out 5 in 4.2 innings. Freshman LHP Jake Yanez finished the game for NJIT and allowed a run in 1.1 innings.
 
In Sunday's opening game, struck in the opening inning on a two-run double  by RF Jayson Sullivan and then got its third run, enough to secure the win, on a sacrifice bunt play that turned into an error with a runner coming around from second base.
 
NJIT got its only two runs on a two-out rally helped along by a Sacred Heart error. With two out, LF Teddy Bickert reached base on an error; RF Matt Weckerle followed with an infield single; 3B Mike Rampone walked to load the bases; and, CF Ed Charlton drove in two with a single.
 
Sacred Heart's late-game insurance runs were highlighted by a three-run double for 1B Victor Sorrento in the bottom of the eighth inning. Sorrento (3-for-3) and 2B Keith Klebart (3-for-5 batting leadoff) accounted for six of Sacred Heart's 11 hits in the game.
 
Charlton (2-for-4) was the only Highlander with more than one hit in the game, although DH Stephan Halibej and 1B Tom Bouck both oubled in going 1-for-4 each.
 
In the second game, four Pioneers got two hits each and three others collected on hit. Only freshman SS Bryan Haberstroh (2-for-3) had more than one hit for the visitors, but six men had one hit apiece for NJIT.
 
Haberstroh's double leading off the seventh inning was the only extra-base hit for the Highlanders and he later scored on a sacrifice fly by 2B Rex McMillan. Earlier, NJIT scored twice in the fourth inning, with Halibej and Bouck each stroking run-scoring singles in the frame.
 
SHU scored its first run of the game in the bottom of the opening inning, as Klebart led off with a single and later came home on two-out single for Sullivan.
 
Down 2-1 in the bottom of the fourth inning, Sullivan got things started with a leadoff triple to the gap in left center field. LF Conor McEvoy singled immediately to tie the score at 2-2 and later scored the go-ahead run on a single for C Derick Horn.
 
Sacred Heart added four runs in a fifth inning that included two hits, two walks and a run-scoring wild pitch and then another tally in the sixth on SS Zach Short's RBI single.
 
Next on the NJIT schedule is a 7 pm Tuesday night home game at Bears and Eagles Riverfront Stadium against Manhattan.