Game One Highlights

Game Two Highlights

NEWARK, NJ—NJIT used two landmark complete-game pitching efforts and a two-game explosion at the plate from sophomore Evan Pietronico to score a 7-2 and 4-1 non-conference baseball doubleheader sweep over visiting NYIT Sunday afternoon.
 
NJIT is 15-23 after taking the two games on Sunday, while the visiting Bears, who had won four of their previous five, including a 2-0 (9 innings) and 7-6 sweep of the Highlanders in Old Westbury, NY, on Saturday afternoon, fall to 17-20 after NJIT turned the tables Sunday afternoon.
 
Pietronico, the Highlanders left fielder, finished Sunday's doubleheader with four hits in seven at-bats;  two doubles in the opening game and a double and a home run in the second game. He drove in five of the 11 runs NJIT scored on Sunday.
 
The landmark pitching came from senior LHP pitcher Ian Bentley (4-3), who became NJIT's all-time Division I career wins leader with 20, after he tossed a five-hit, seven-inning complete game in the opener and from junior right-hander Bryan Haberstroh (1-3), who got his first college win with a seven-inning three-hitter in the nightcap.
 
Junior RHP Elias Martinez, the first of three Bears pitchers in the opener, was charged with all seven NJIT runs in 3.2 innings and he took the loss, dropping to 3-3 on the season.
 
Junior LHP David Plotkin, the Game Two starter for NYIT, took the loss and is 2-3 after allowing just one earned run (three total) in 4.1 innings. He allowed two hits and walked seven.

Bentley wins program-record 20th of his career
Bentley, 2012 graduate of Lancaster Catholic High School in Pennsylvania, has been a valuable member of the Highlanders pitching staff since he enrolled in NJIT.
 
He made 18 of his 19 freshman pitching appearances in relief and notched a team-leading five saves, while also winning three games. He began his sophomore year in the bullpen, but shifted to starting in-season and he has been a rotation mainstay ever since.  He won six games that year (2014) and then set an NJIT DI record last year with seven wins as a junior.
 
Bentley tied Tripp Davis (Class of 2013) for the career Division I lead (19 wins) with a victory on April 1 vs. USC Upstate in NJIT's first-ever baseball game as a member of the Atlantic Sun Conference, but he was denied the school record for two starts before crossing the finish line with Sunday's 7-2 win.

Haberstroh gets his first win
Bentley and Habertsroh were teammates at Lancaster Catholic and they were reunited as college teammates in 2014, when Haberstroh was a freshman. However, Haberstroh, who pitched some in high school, was strictly a position player his first two seasons with NJIT. But he has become a starting pitcher this season (Haberstroh continues to play in the field when he doesn't pitch this season).
 
After an adjustment period to facing college hitters, Haberstroh has pitched well enough to win his last four starts. But before Sunday, all he had was a loss and two no-decisions to show for his work.
 
On Sunday, he allowed a leadoff home run in the third inning, but that was all the scoring and Haberstroh secured his first college win by allowing the one run and just three hits, while walking two and striking out five Bears.
 
The junior has gone seven innings in three of his last four starts and six innings in the other start. He did not allow more than two runs in any of the starts, logging a 2.33 earned run average over the last 27 innings.

Already hot, Pietronico got hotter Sunday
Pietronico, Sunday's hitting star, already was having a good week, but it turned out to be merely an appetizer for what he served up in leading the sweep.
 
He was 3-for-5, including a pair of doubles in last Tuesday's 14-3 rout of Fairleigh Dickinson and then he got doubles in each game of the Saturday doubleheader at NYIT, driving home three runs in the nightcap.
 
He keyed Sunday's first victory with two doubles in three at-bats, as he drove in three runs. In the second game, his home run leading off the bottom of the first inning staked the Highlanders to a 1-0 lead and then he doubled with two out in the bottom of the sixth inning to knock home an insurance run.

Game One
In addition to Pietronico, who batted leadoff on Sunday, the Highlanders got a 2-for-3 in the opener from the second man in their batting order, CF Jesse Uttendorfer, who hit a triple and drove in two runs. Pietronico and Uttendorfer accounted for four of NJIT's seven Game One hits and drove in five of the team's seven runs, while scoring three runs between them.
 
In addition to Pietronico and Uttendorfer, 3B Tom Brady and C Edgar Badaraco each got a hit and drove in a run for the Highlanders.
 
The visiting Bears, who got five hits in seven innings off of Bentley in Game One, got two apiece from senior CF Joe Daru and junior 3B Louis Mele. Daru hit a home run leading off the fifth inning for NYIT and 2B Frank Sanacore also hit a double in the game for the visitors.
 
NJIT scored twice in the first inning, as Pietronico led off with a walk and Uttendorfer followed with a run-scoring triple. Uttendorfer scored from third base two batters later on a ground out by Brady.
 
The 2-0 Highlander lead held until Sanacore opened the fourth inning with a double and later scored on a ground out.
 
NJIT answered with five runs in the bottom half of the fourth, keyed by Pietronico's three-run double, while Badaraco and Uttendorfer each singled to drive in a run in the frame.
 
Down 7-1 after four innings, NYIT got Daru's leadoff homer in the fifth inning to close the scoring. Bentley retired eight in a row before Daru singled with two out in the seventh and after allowing a walk, the senior lefty nailed down his record-setting victory with a ground out.

Game Two
Neither team hit much in the nightcap with three apiece. But NJIT also drew eight bases on balls and took advantage of a critical Bears error with two outs in the bottom of the fifth inning to break a 1-1 tie in a contest the Highlanders won, 4-1.
 
Pietronico homered to lead off the bottom of the first inning and the lead for the Highlanders stood up until the top of the third inning, when NYIT C Jeff Tabares hit a leadoff home run over the left field fence.
 
The score remained 1-1 until the bottom of the fifth inning. After one out, Plotkin walked Uttendorfer and DH Stephan Halibej back-to-back. That brought Timothy Milligan in from the Bears bullpen and he got Brady to hit into a fielder's choice force out, leaving Highlanders on the corners with two out.
 
With runs and hits hard to come by, NJIT put on a steal play, with Brady breaking from first base looking to draw a throw from the catcher to set up a possible steal of home by Uttendorfer if the throw went to second.
 
Instead, the Bears chose not to throw, conceding second base to Brady, but holding the runner at third base with two out. The next batter, Badaraco, hit a ground ball to the NYIT shortstop, whose throw got away at first base, allowing the two base runners to score. Badaraco ran hard out of the batter's box, pressuring the shortstop to make a strong throw to finish the third out.
 
The final run came in on a two-out NJIT rally. RF Matt McKinnon walked with two out and came all the way around when Pietronico laced an RBI double down the right field line.

The week ahead
The Highlanders, 7-2 this season in home games, but 8-21 between away games and neutral-site games, are slated for one more contest at Bears and Eagles Riverfront Stadium before they hit the road next weekend.
 
NJIT is scheduled to host Saint Peter's on Tuesday at 6 pm in downtown Newark. After the non-conference game vs. Saint Peter's, the Highlanders will return to Atlantic Sun Conference play with a three-game series in Nashville at Lipscomb, starting at 6 pm on Friday, April 29,