NEWARK, NJ—NJIT swept Saturday's baseball doubleheader at Riverfront Stadium against Manhattan, taking the first game 9-1 in seven innings and then finishing the job with a 7-3 nine-inning triumph. Two  new important entries joined the Highlanders' Division I pitching record book in the process.
 
NJIT, which is in its ninth season of Division I competition, has a new single-season wins leader after junior left-hander Ian Bentley raised his personal record to 7-3 with a complete-game six-hitter in the first game. The record had been held jointly by Bentley (2014), Tripp Davis (2011), and PJ Saporito (2007).
 
Saturday's route-going effort was the sixth complete game for Bentley, which ties the school DI record set by Davis in 2011. With next weekend's series at Quinnipiac dropping the curtain on 2015, Bentley should make one more start. The overall school record for wins in a season is 10, done twice in NJIT's Division III era (George Olson, 1977; Dan MacDonald, 1982).
 
The program Division I career saves record fell in the second game, when senior lefty Tyler Kapp notched the last five outs without allowing a hit or run. It was the eighth save of Kapp's career, seven of which have come this season. Kapp had shared the record with the Bentley, the Game One winning pitcher, and with Cory Kuzmik.
 
None among Kapp, Bentley, and Kuzmik were strictly relievers. Kuzmik, who is NJIT's overall career saves leader with 15, played the first two years of his career in Division II, getting eight saves at that level, saved seven as a junior in the program's first DI season in 2007 and then started eight games as a senior.
 
Bentley made 18 of his 19 overall freshman appearances out of the bullpen in 2013 and made the transition to the starting rotation in April of 2014 after having come out of the pen eight times in March. Kapp was strictly a position player as a freshman and has made 33 of his 36 career pitching appearances in 2014 and 2015.
 
Saturday's sweep over Manhattan lifted NJIT's season won-lost to 22-19-1, with the 22 wins representing the second-highest total for the Highlanders at the Division I level. The most wins for NJIT as a DI program is 25 (25-27 in 2012). NJIT won 20 games each in 2011, 2013, and 2014.
 
Manhattan falls to 15-32 with the twin defeat on Saturday.
 
Following Bentley's complete-game win in the opener, NJIT got solid work from three pitchers to seize the second game.
 
Freshman RHP Sean Lubreski (4-4) started and got the win after tossing five innings of five-hit, three-run ball and classmate Tommy Derer pitched 2.1 scoreless innings, lowering his team-best earned run average to 1.05. Kapp then locked up the save after entering up 5-3 with one out in the eighth inning.
 
Manhattan used three pitchers in the opening-game defeat, with freshman left-hander Tom Cosgrove (1-4) starting and taking the loss for the Jaspers. The trio of pitchers combined to allow 17 hits and four walks in six innings of at-bats for the Highlanders.
 
Scott McClennan (4-7) was the starter and losing pitcher for the Jaspers in the nightcap. The crafty fifth-year senior was touched for 13 hits in 5.2 innings, but wiggled out of trouble multiple times to keep his team in the game. Junior Michael Scarinci allowed two runs in relief of McClennan.
 
Game One
Manhattan got its only run off of Bentley in the opening inning of the opening game. But the Highlanders took charge from there, NJIT drew even with a run in the bottom of the first inning; went ahead on a pair of run in the second and then tacked on four runs in the fourth inning and two in the sixth.
 
The Highlanders piled up 17 hits and they were spread up and down the order, with SS Bryan Haberstroh going 3-for-4, while seven other Highlanders got two hits apiece. NJIT hit four doubles—two for Haberstroh, who has 14 two-baggers for the season; one for 1B Ed Charlton, his twelfth; and one for 2B Rex MacMillan, his third of the year. Charlton collected three runs batted in and Haberstroh and MacMillan each drove in a pair.
 
CF Jesse Uttendorfer (2-for-5) singled to drive home LF Evan Pietronico (2-for-4) with the second-inning run that put NJIT on top to stay, 2-1.
 
Manhattan's six hits against Bentley were all singles, led by RF Chris Kalousdian (2-for-3).
  Game Two was a more difficult win for the Highlanders, although they never trailed.
 
NJIT opened the scoring with a run in the bottom of the first inning and added two more tallies in the third inning for a 3-0 advantage. However, the Jaspers bats came alive in the fourth, when they scored twice. The Highlanders answered with a run in the bottom half of the inning to lead, 4-2.
 
But Manhattan kept on the pressure with a run in the top of the fifth inning off of Lubreski. However, that was all the scoring the visitors had in them and NJIT got a run in the sixth and two in the eighth, while Durer and Kapp put up zeros over the last four frames of the 7-3 victory.
 
NJIT again hit throughout the batting order, piling up 15 hits with men posting multi-hit games. Charlton and 3B Mike Rampone, who are in the next-to-last weekend of careers that have made them among the best baseball players in school history, were the leaders in Saturday's nightcap.
 
Charlton, who played first base on Saturday,as 3-for-5 in the second game, including a double and a home run, which was good for two runs batted in.
 
Rampone was 3-for-5, including a double, and drove in three runs.
 
Rampone and Charlton are 1-2 in two overall NJIT career batting categories, hits and doubles. Rampone leads both columns with 214 hits and 45 doubles, while Charlton has 210 hits and 44 doubles.
 
Rampone is likely to break another school record on Sunday. Having each started all 52 games in 2015, he has played in 191 career games, which is tied with 2014 graduate Matt Weckerle for the most in NJIT annals. Charlton has played in 181 career games.
 
Charlton's five runs batted in on Saturday raised his career RBI total to 121, the school Division I record. The overall school record is 131 by Chris Schwartz (2001-04 when NJIT was in Division II).
 
In addition to the three hits each from Rampone and Charlton in Saturday's nightcap, NJIT got two hits apiece from C Stephan Halibej (2-for-4, double, RBI), MacMillan (2-for-4 in the game; 4-for-7 in the doubleheader), and RF Matt McKinnon (2-for-4).
 
Manhattan, which did more hitting in the second game than it did in the opener, picked up two-hit games from LF Brendan Bisset, Kalousdian, and 1B Christian Santisteban. Kalousdian and SS Joe McClennan, brother of starting pitcher Scott, hit a double each.
 
NJIT's first-inning run came when Rampone singled on a chopper through the shortstop/third base hole to drive in Uttendorfer, who opened the bottom of the first inning with a walk.
 
Halibej and Pietronico each had run scoring singles in the third inning to stretch the Highlanders' lead to 3-0, but it could have been more against the wily and fortunate McClennan.
 
NJIT, which had seven hits in the opening three innings, got four of them in the third. Pietronico's hit was scorched down the third base line, but Jaspers 3B Michael Pfenninger made a diving back-hand stab to keep the ball on the infield and give McClennan the room he needed to avoid further damage.
 
The diving stop looked bigger when the Jaspers, who were hitless in the opening three innings against Lubreski, got three hits and two runs in the top of the fourth inning, as Joe McClennan hit an RBI double and DH Vin Teixeira brought home a second run on a fielder's choice ground out.
 
Rampone singled for another NJIT run and a 4-2 lead in the bottom of the frame, but the Jaspers got the run back in the next half-inning on Kalousdian's two-out run-scoring double.
 
Leading 4-3, McKinnon singled to open the Highlander half of the sixth inning and a scored on a Rampone double two outs later.
 
Charlton put the cherry on the sundae this day for NJIT when he hit his team-leading eighth home run of the year over the left field fence with two outs in the bottom of the eighth inning.
 
Mother's Day is NJIT Baseball's 2015 Senior Day
The Highlanders and Jaspers are scheduled for a Mother's Day doubleheader on Sunday, with first pitch slated for noon at Riverfront Stadium. Sunday will follow the same format as Saturday with the opening game scheduled to go seven innings, followed by a nine-inning nightcap.
 
As the last home date of 2015, NJIT will observe Senior Day, with recognition ceremonies between games for the team's four seniors: Charlton, Rampone, Kapp, and Joe Fasano, who his scheduled to be the starting pitcher in one of the contests.