Box Score 1 | Box Score 2


OLD WESTBURY, NY—NJIT baseball got back into the wins column with a 9-5 and 3-0 doubleheader sweep at New York Institute of Technology in Saturday afternoon baseball action on NYIT's Lorenzo Field.
 
NJIT and NYIT, where baseball is the only men's NCAA Division I sport (the others are NCAA Division II), have played every season since the Highlanders began Division I competition in 2007, including as members of the Great West Conference four the last four seasons (2010 through 2013).
 
Even though the Great West ceased operations on July 1, 2013, both teams will continue playing each other, with another single game slated for Sunday afternoon on Long Island and a doubleheader meeting on tap for Newark on May 11 in NJIT's last scheduled 2014 home games.
 
Saturday's doubleheader sweep lifted NJIT's record to 8-11, while the Bears of NYIT are 1-21. NYIT might be more appropriately nicknamed the "Cubs" this year, with 13 freshmen on the 32-man roster for second-year head coach Bob Malvagna. Six of the Game One starters were freshmen and seven starters in Game Two were rookies.
 
NJIT never trailed in the opening nine-inning game, scoring four times in the top of the first inning before the Bears came back for a run in the bottom of the frame and tied the score on three runs in the bottom of the third. The Highlanders answered back immediately with two runs in the next half-inning and they scored twice in the eighth frame and once in the ninth for a 9-4 lead before NYIT got a run in the last half-inning.
 
Sophomore lefty Ian Bentley, making his second start of 2014 and his 10th appearance in all, got the win to lift his personal record to 2-3 on 7 innings, 5 hits and 4 runs, with 6 strikeouts and a pair of walks. Left-handed redshirt junior Tyler Kapp finished up with two innings that included two hits and a run to go with three strikeouts. Kapp lowered his team-best earned run average 1.88 on 14.1 innings spread over 10 appearances, all out of the bullpen.
 
NYIT used five pitchers, with the starter, freshman RHP Elias Martinez (0-2) taking the loss after allowing six runs in 3.2 innings. Only the fourth Bears pitcher, junior lefty Michael Auriemmo, had anything close to a clean outing, as he was credited with one inning and no hits or runs, while walking one. The five Bears pitchers combined to allow nine hits—three for extra bases—and 10 bases-on-balls.
 
In the second game, a seven-inning affair, the story was NJIT's redshirt senior right-hander DJ Roche (2-1), who dominated in the 3-0 shutout, scattering four hits while getting 13 of his 21 outs on strikeouts and walking four.
 
Roche, who missed the entire 2013 season after undergoing elbow surgery in 2012, has notched an impressive 46 strikeouts in 33.2 innings pitched (12.30 per nine innings). He entered play Saturday ranked 13th in Division I for strikeouts/9 IP and his 13 punch-outs vs. NYIT were a new career high, topping the 10 he recorded once in 2011 and once in 2012, his last previous college season.
 
The Game Two loss went to the NYIT starter, senior RHP John Duggan (0-3), who allowed all three Highlander runs, working the first six innings and allowing seven hits and a walk, while fanning three. Junior right-hander James Moussa pitched the top of the scoreless seventh inning, allowing a hit.
 
No one knew at the time, but Roche got all the runs he would need when the Highlanders struck twice in the top of the first inning on a two-out, two-run home run by junior CF Ed Charlton. NJIT added a run in the top of the third and went on to the 3-0 win, as neither team scored the rest of the way.
 
NJIT actually stranded 12 base runners in the opener, but still scored the nine runs. Seven different Highlanders got at least one hit and the leadoff man, redshirt senior LF Teddy Bickert was 2-for-5 with a walk and Roche, playing the opener as the designated hitter, was 2-for-4 with a walk and drove in three runs. Senior RF Matt Weckerle (1-for-3) also drove in three, including a two-run home run as the second batter of the game after Bickert had singled leading off. Roche got his runs batted in on a two-run double in the first inning and a bases-loaded walk in the fourth.
 
Freshman C Cody Kramer (1-for-3) added a double for the Highlanders, while 3B Mike Rampone (1-for-4) drove in a two runs. Rampone leads NJIT with 14 RBI for the season through 19 games.
 
NYIT had six hits in the opener, with freshman 1B Louis Mele collecting two hits, including a two-run homer in the Bears' three-run bottom of the third inning. Freshman RF Thomas Joannou (1-for-4) doubled for his only hit, while sophomore CF Joe Daru (0-for-3, walk, run), junior C Nick Sebastian (1-for-4, run).
 
After Weckerle's  home run gave his team a 2-0 lead two batters into the opening game, Rampone walked and stole second base ahead of a Charlton single, before Roche's double knocked them both home.
 
Joe Daru, who is a member of the Thailand National Baseball Team, where one of his teammates has included long-time major league star Johnny Damon, drove in NYIT's first run in the bottom of the first, reaching on a fielder's choice, as freshman LF Frank Sanacore scored after leading off the inning with a walk and advancing to third base on a single for freshman SS Anthony Martelli.
 
The Bears pulled even with their three tallies in the bottom of the third, keyed by Mele's two-run homer, his first round-tripper of the year, and a run-scoring single for Sebastian.
 
Tied at 4-4, NJIT got two runs in the fourth, with one crossing on Rampone's single and the second coming in when Roche walked two spots later in the order. The two eighth-inning runs for the Highlanders were on a bases-loaded sacrifice fly by Weckerle and on a fielder's choice RBI for Rampone.
 
Each team scored a run in the ninth inning. NJIT SS Bryan Haberstroh (1-for-4) opened the top half with a single, went to third base on Kramer's double and scored on a wild pitch.  The Bears got an unearned run in the bottom half. As Mele, who had singled, eventually came around when a ball hit by Sotolongo was misplayed for NJIT's only error with two outs.
 
The Highlanders, who have doubled their opponents, 12-6, in first-inning runs this season, struck twice in the first inning of the nightcap, as Charlton powered his second home run of the season, a two-run shot, with two out.
 
Charlton is 5-for-14 (.357), including both of his 2014 home runs in the last four games, after managing four hits in his first 36 at-bats (.111) of the season. His 2-for-4 in Saturday's nightcap was his first multiple-hit game of 2014 after he did it a combined 36 times in his first two college seasons.
 
NJIT's third-inning run was Weckerle's team-leading fifth home run of the season as he led off the frame and capped the day's scoring.

Roche was a combined 4-for-7 in the doubleheader, including two doubles and a triple.
 
The two teams will go at again on Sunday, with first pitch of the single game set for 1 pm.