NEWARK, NJ—Terrific starting pitching was the story in Saturday's doubleheader, as NJIT rode the left of arm of junior Ian Bentley to a 5-2 win in the opening game and visiting Lafayette countered with a dominant effort from sophomore right-hander David Bednar in the second game, as the Leopards salvaged a split, 8-2, at Riverfront Stadium.
 
With the victory in the seven-inning opener, Bentley raised his season record to 6-3, tying the program Division I record for wins in a season. He becomes the fourth Highlander to reach six wins in a season since NJIT began Division I competition in 2007. He won six himself in 2014 and was preceded by Tripp Davis in 2011 and PJ Saporito in 2007. All of the record-holders, coincidentally are left-handers.
 
Saturday's effort was Bentley's fifth complete game of the season, which is one shy of Davis' school DI-record six from 2011.
 
Bentley's final line read: 7 innings, 6 hits, 2 runs, 2 walks and 7 strikeouts. With a four-game series at home next weekend vs. Manhattan and a season-ending series at Quinnipiac the following weekend, Bentley stands to make two more starts in 2015.
 
Lafayette's Bednar came into Saturday's nightcap with a pedestrian 2-6 won-lost record, but opponents were batting just .209 against him in 187 at-bats and his earned run average was a team-leading 2.81. Against NJIT, he pitched seven innings and allowed two runs on five hits, while walking two and striking out 11.
 
Bednar got seven of his punch outs against the top three in the Highlanders batting order, frequently closing the deal with slow breaking stuff that had the hitters completely off balance in two-strike spots. He picked up his last three strikeouts in his final inning of work, the seventh, leaving the bases loaded with the Leopards on top by four, 6-2.
 
Junior lefty Ryan Calinan faced the six-batter minimum in closing out the victory for the Leopards.
 
The split of Saturday's doubleheader leaves NJIT with a record of 20-18-1 for the season, while Lafayette is 12-25-1.
 
The Highlanders have now won at least 20 games each of the last five seasons, beginning in since 2011.
 
The 20-win plateau does not have the cache in baseball that it does in basketball, which plays fewer total games. But it is a benchmark of a solid year for a team that plays in the Northeast part of the country, where many early season games go unplayed due to weather-related cancellations.
 
The losing pitcher in Game One for Lafayette was senior Toby Schwartz (3-4), who allowed six hits and five runs in 3.2 innings. Senior Alex Farina finished up for the Leopards, blanking the Highlanders on a hit and a walk over 2.1 innings.
 
The losing pitcher for NJIT in Game Two was freshman starter Johnny Malatesta (5-3), who made his shortest appearance of the season, lasting 3.2 innings and allowing nine hits and six runs (three earned). He had won his previous two starts, allowing just one run in 15 innings.
 
Malatesta gave way to fellow freshman John Saviano, who entered with the Highlanders trailing 6-2 in the fourth inning and kept it there with three straight scoreless innings before allowing a couple of runs in the eighth inning. Saviano pitched 4.1 innings and allowed three hits—two in his final inning—while also walking a pair. A third freshman, lefty Justin Chin, pitched the ninth for NJIT and gave up a hit, but no runs.
 
The Highlanders got on the scoreboard first with a run in the bottom of the opening inning of Saturday's first game. Lafayette leveled the score with a run in the third inning, but NJIT took control in the bottom of the fourth inning, plating four runs. The Leopards got a run back in the fifth, but no more, and the Highlanders prevailed, 5-2.
 
NJIT had seven hits in the opener, including doubles for 1B Ed Charlton, 2B Rex MacMillan, and LF Evan Pietronico, who drove in two runs.
 
Also noteworthy, Tyler Kapp, serving as the designated hitter, finished the game 2-for-3. Kapp, a fifth-year senior who is the team's top relief pitcher, made his first plate appearance since 2013. As a freshman in 2011, he started 54 games as a position player. He was out all of 2012 due to injury and returned in 2013, when he transitioned to the pitching side of the game. He had 67 at-bats in 2013, none in 2014 and then went into the batter's box Saturday in the 38th game of 2015.
 
Three of Lafayette's six hits against Bentley came from SS Jackson Kramer (3-for-3) and LF Brett Thompson's only hit for the Leopards was a two-out solo home run in the fifth inning.
 
Charlton, as he has so many times in his NJIT career, got the Highlanders going with a one-out double in the first inning. 3B Mike Rampone, another senior who is filling the school record books, followed with a run-scoring single to put the Highlanders up, 1-0.
 
Lafayette CF Michael Coniglio built his team's first run, leading off the third inning with a single, stealing second base, moving to third base on an out and then scoring on Bentley's wild pitch.
 
NJIT broke the tie on MacMillan's two-run double to left field and Pietronico later doubled home MacMillan with the third run of the fourth inning before CF Jesse Uttendorfer chased in Pietronico with the fourth run of the frame.
 
Visiting Lafayette put at least one run on the board in each of the first four innings and added two more in the sixth inning, which was more than enough support for the starting pitcher, Bednar. NJIT got its only two runs in the bottom of the second inning.
 
Two of the Leopards' more productive hitters from the first game got them going to begin the second game, as Thompson singled up the middle to bring in Coniglio, who led off the nightcap with a single and moved up on a sacrifice bunt.
 
Lafayette picked up two more runs in the second inning on a bases-loaded single down the right field line by 2B Rob Caliento.
 
Trailing 3-0, NJIT showed some life in the bottom of the second inning, as SS Bryan Haberstroh opened with a double down the right field line and 1B Stephan Halibej followed with a single. After an out, C Cody Kramer doubled to left field to bring home two runs. Faced with one out and potential tying run at second base, Bednar struck out the next two Highlanders to douse the threat.
 
The game got away from the Highlanders after that, starting with Lafayette's two-run third inning that pushed the visitors' lead back to 5-2. With one out, Thompson reached base on an error and Toby Schwartz, playing first base after pitching in the opener, doubled. Malatesta struck out the next batter, but on a day where he was off his top form, he couldn't get the third out until after 3B Tyler Hudson punched a two-out, two-run single to left field.
 
Both runs were unearned and Lafayette picked up another unearned one in the fourth inning with the run scoring on Jackson Kramer's two-out single.
 
The Leopards' two eighth-inning runs came in on RBI singles by LF Luke Robinson and Kramer.
 
Lafayette had 13 hits in the nightcap, with four batters—Coniglio, Kramer, Schawartz, and Robinson—collecting two hits each. Kramer, Hudson, and Caliento each knocked in a pair of runs.
 
NJIT, with five hits total, was paced by Halibej's 2-for-4.
 
The Highlanders and Lafayette are slated to wrap up the three-game weekend series on Sunday with a single game in Easton, PA, at 1 pm.