ARLINGTON, VA—NJIT and George Washington split the first two games of the 2015 season for both squads, with GW taking the opener 5-1 and the visiting Highlanders bouncing back to win the nightcap 6-2, in a pair of 9-inning games.
 
NJIT scored its only run of the opener in the top of the first inning before the Colonials came back for a pair of runs in the bottom of the frame. George Washington then added on a run in the second and two more in the fifth. Fourteen of the 15 hits in the game for the two teams were singles (GW had a triple).
 
Junior LHP Ian Bentley, NJIT's top winner (6) as a sophomore in 2014, took the loss, allowing all 5 runs (3 earned) in 4.1 innings. He is the only returning pitcher who started more two games for the Highlanders last season.
 
Two freshmen came on for the Highlanders after Bentley and neither allowed a run. James Sofield, a 6-foot-5 right-hander pitched 2.1 innings and lefty Justin Chin wrapped up the last 1.1 innings for NJIT.
 
The win went to the George Washington starter, junior RHP Bobby LaWarne, who gave up the run and two hits in the opening frame and then locked down the Highlanders, holding them scoreless on just one hit the rest of the way through seven innings. Sophomore RHP Eddie Muhl pitched the last two innings for GW, surrendering a pair of hits, but no runs.
 
The Colonials got big games from senior CF Ryan Xepoleas (3-for-4, triple, run, RBI) and from the top two hitters in the order, sophomore LF Joey Bartosic (2-for-4, run) and freshman 2B Robbie Metz (2-for-5, run).
 
NJIT's five hits came from different players, with freshman 1B Johnny Malatesta (1-for-3) scoring the run on an RBI single for DH Stephan Halibej (1-for-4).
 
George Washington broke on top in the second game, plating two runs in the bottom of the first inning. But that was it for the Colonials and NJIT got on the board with a run in the second inning and then tied with a run in the top of the fourth. The Highlanders took a 3-2 lead with a run in the sixth and then added insurance with another tally in the seventh inning and two more in the ninth.
 
Redshirt senior RHP Joe Fasano, who missed all of 2014 due to injury, allowed the two runs in the first, but no more and finished his day with 5 innings pitched, 5 hits, a walk and two strikeouts. He got the win in his return to competition Saturday.
 
Another NJIT redshirt senior, big left-hander Tyler Kapp, blanked GW on four hits over the last four innings to pick up his first save of 2015. Kapp, who was a position player as a freshman in 2011 and missed all of 2012 with an injury, had a breakthrough season in 2014, pitching  in a team-leading 18 games, all in relief and posting a 2.67 earned run average.
 
The George Washington starter, freshman LHP Kevin Hodgson, lasted four innings and took the loss after yielding the first two NJIT runs on five hits.
 
Four GW relievers combined to allow five hits and four more runs. The scores for both teams were all earned runs.
 
Each team collected 10 hits in the nightcap, with Malatesta continuing a memorable opening day of his college career, as he went 3-for-4 (triple) in Game Two after his 1-for-3 in the opener.
 
Halibej stayed hot, too, going 2-for-3 (2 doubles) and driving in three runs after his 1-for-4 and RBI in the opener. Sophomore SS Bryan Haberstroh (2-for-4, 2 runs) also hit a double in the Highlander win.
 
NJIT got its opening-game run in the first inning when Malatesta hit a one-out infield single and versatile senior infielder Mike Rampone followed with a single and the pair each moved up a base on the play when GW committed an error. Halibej then brought home Malatesta, who scored from third on Halibej's fielder's choice ground out, as Rampone was erased trying to take third base.
 
George Washington racked up three hits and two runs in the bottom of the frame, Bartosic, who singled leading off and went to second on a Metz single, scored on 1B Bobby Campbell's single. Metz scoring what proved to be the winning run when he came in from third base on a wild pitch.
 
Two Highlander errors contributed to George Washington's second-inning run and Xeopolas tripled home another run and came home on the same play due to error in fifth.  
 
George Washington got its two runs in the opening inning of the nightcap after Malatesta had led off the game for NJIT with a triple, but was thrown out attempting to steal home with one out.
 
The two Colonial runs came in on, respectively on a ground out by Campbell and a run-scoring single by SS Kevin Mahala.
 
Halibej led off the NJIT second with a double and later scored on an error and the Highlanders leveled the score in the fourth, when Haberstroh singled with one out, moved up a base on an out and scored on a two-out single for 2B Rex MacMillan.
 
With the score at 2-2, Haberstroh stroked a ground-rule double down the left field line to lead off the sixth and then stole third base. After an out and a walk, RF Jesse Unterdorfer, a redshirt freshman who appeared in 6 games before a season-ending injury in 2014, dropped down a sacrifice bunt to bring in Haberstroh with what would become the winning run.
 
Senior CF Ed Charlton was hit by a pitch leading off the seventh inning and went to second base a ground out and to third on a wild pitch. Halibej then drove Charlton home on a sacrifice fly for a 4-2 NJIT lead.
 
The Highlanders capped the scoring in the ninth, with two runs, both coming home on Halibej's one-out double to right center field.
 
Aside from being Opening Day 2015, Saturday's doubleheader had some added meaning for NJIT's head coach Brian Guiliana, who is a 1996 graduate of George Washington and a former captain of the baseball team. He came to NJIT as an assistant coach in 2011 and is in his third season as head coach of the Highlanders. Until Saturday, he had not coached against his alma mater.
 
Saturday's doubleheader in the Washington, DC, area was played in tolerable weather conditions, especially for mid-February. But the extreme cold front entering the East is expected to yield high temperatures Sunday of just 20 degrees in DC. As a result, the game that had been scheduled for noon on Sunday has been cancelled.
 
The cancellation means the next competition for the Highlanders is scheduled for three games in two days at Longwood in Farmville, VA, next weekend (February 21 and 22).