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NEWARK, NJ—NJIT dropped two Atlantic Sun Conference baseball games on Friday afternoon vs. North Florida, 9-2 and 22-2, as the Highlanders closed their 2016 season and UNF played its final two regular season games.
 
North Florida ends the regular season with a 37-17 overall record and a 15-6 mark in the Atlantic Sun, which is good for second place in the conference standings. NJIT, which will finish at the bottom of the eight-team A-Sun standings, ends at 2-18 in the conference and 17-36 overall. The Ospreys will compete in the Atlantic Sun Conference championship tournament later this week.
 
The Highlanders, who were unanimous picks for eighth place in the A-Sun preseason coaches' poll, stunned USC Upstate in the first conference series of the year, winning 4-2 on April 1 and 8-6 on April 2 before the third scheduled game was rained out.
 
There would be no more A-Sun wins in NJIT's first season in the rugged conference, as the Highlanders lost all 18 conference games from April 8 through Saturday's doubleheader sweep.
 
The Atlantic Sun is one of the strongest conferences nationally in Division I baseball, ranking 12th among 32 conferences in 2015, according to the NCAA's Rating Percentage Index (RPI). The only conferences with any members based in the northeastern United States and a higher RPI last year were: the ACC (ranked second and including Pitt and Virginia); American Athletic (ranked 3rd in the RPI and including UConn); and, the Big Ten (ranked 7th in the RPI and including Rutgers and Penn State).
 
Another clue to the A-Sun's strength is that NJIT went 2-18 in conference play, but finished significantly better (15-18) outside the conference.
 
In addition to completing the season for NJIT, Friday's games brought down the curtain on the careers of two seniors who distinguished themselves as two of the best performers in the 10-year Division I era of NJIT baseball. And like so many student-athletes at NJIT, Ian Bentley and Stephan Halibej also distinguished themselves as scholars.
 
Bentley, a left-handed pitcher, was the losing pitcher in Friday's 9-2 Game One loss, ending his season with a 4-5 won-lost record. However, he leaves with his name etched all over the Highlander record book.
 
He was the winning pitcher when NJIT beat USC Upstate in the first-ever A-Sun game for the Highlanders on April 1. He did it with five innings of five-hit, one-run relief that included seven strikeouts.
 
That his A-Sun win came in his only relief appearance of 2016 was fitting, because the bullpen is where the slender product of Lancaster, PA, first made his mark for NJIT. As a freshman in 2013, Bentley pitched in 19 games, 18 as a reliever, and notched a team-leading five saves, while also winning three games.
 
He shifted to the starting rotation part way through his sophomore year and won six games that year, followed by a school Division I-record seven wins as a junior. His four victories this season raised his career total to 20, a new school Division I record, surpassing Tripp Davis (Class of 2013), who won 19 career games.
 
Bentley's 4.40 career earned run average is second on the DI list among pitchers with at least 120 innings pitched and his 3.24 ERA in 2014 is the best season mark for pitchers with at least 40 IP. His 61 appearances are second all-time and his 34 games started are fourth.
 
His seven complete games in 2015 are tops all-time and his 12 complete games overall are third on the career DI list. He is third on the career innings list (272) and third in career strikeouts (211).
 
Off the field, Bentley is enrolled in a five-year program that will see him earn a degree in architecture and a master's degree in civil engineering.
 
Halibej, who played most of his college career as either a first baseman or a designated hitter, graduated from nearby high school power Seton Hall Prep in 2011, but did not play for the Highlanders in 2012 due to injury.
 
From 2013, when he was first-team All-Great West Conference as a redshirt freshman, through 2016, he was a mainstay in the NJIT lineup.
 
He is among the Division I-era leaders in games played (fifth; 169); at-bats (fifth; 612); runs scored (tied for fifth; 76); hits (sixth; 175); doubles (tied for third; 42); home runs (fifth; 11); and runs batted in (fourth; 98).
 
This season, Halibej batted .285 (the second-best season average of his career), with career-bests in doubles (16) and home runs (4), while driving in 26 runs.
 
He earned a bachelor's degree in finance and a master's degree in international business, graduating summa cum laude.
 
Game One recap
North Florida scored one run in each of the first two innings, while NJIT answered with a run in the third. After a scoreless fourth inning, North Florida seized control with four runs in the top of the fifth inning and then adding another run in the sixth inning for a 7-1 advantage. Each team got a run in the eighth inning and the Ospreys added one in the ninth.
 
North Florida banged out 16 hits, including a trio of doubles, two by LF Dakota Higdon (4-for-5, 4 runs), as well as the eighth home run of the season for CF Chris Thibideau (3-for-5, 2 runs, 3 RBI). C Keith Skinner, who hails from Berkeley Heights, NJ, was 3-for-5, as well, and DH Corbin Olmstead as 3-for-4 and drove in a pair of runs.
 
The win went to freshman left-hander Austin Drury, the first of three pitchers for UNF, who upped his season won-lost record to 6-1 with five innings of three-hit, one-run pitching.
 
Bentley took the loss for the Highlanders, who got seven hits, including one for LF Evan Pietronico, who extended his school record of two-baggers in a season to 21 and knocked in the first Highlander run. The sophomore is tied for 16th in Division I for doubles.
 
NJIT's promising young left side of the infield, freshman 3B Tom Brady and freshman SS Justin Etts, each got two hits in the game.
 
North Florida opened the scoring in the first inning when Higdon doubled with one out and later scored on a two-out bloop single by Thibideau.
 
The Ospreys added an unearned run in the second on an RBI single by SS Kyle Brooks and NJIT got within a run on Pietronico's run-scoring double with two out in the third inning.
 
UNF's four-run fifth inning included run-producing singles for Olmstead and Thibideau and a two-run double for 3B Alex Merritt (1-for-5).
 
Olmstead drove in another run on a sixth-inning single and Skinner brought in a run with a single in the eighth inning for UNF.
 
C Edgar Badaraco drove in the second run for NJIT on an eighth-inning ground out after Halibej began the frame with a single and Brady doubled two batters later.
 
Thibideau capped the scoring with a home run leading off the ninth inning for North Florida.
 
Game Two recap
North Florida exploded for 22 runs and 26 hits in the regular season finale. The Ospreys scored two in the first inning, one in the second and three in the third inning for a 6-0 lead.
 
After a scoreless third frame, UNF poured across nine runs in the fifth inning, four in the sixth, two in the seventh and one in the ninth.
 
The Ospreys hit nine doubles, three by RF Nick Kermeris (5-for-6, 6 RBI, 3 runs). They also got the first home run of the season by Blake Voyles, who entered the game as a pinch hitter. Eight UNF players had at least two hits each, including Voyles (2-for-3) and Dalton Board (3-for-4), neither of whom started.
 
In addition to the six runs batted in for Karmeris, North Florida got three RBI from Merritt (2-for-5) and rwo each from Brooks, Board, Skinner, Voyles, and Zach Drury.
 
NJIT, which scored both of its runs in the bottom of the seventh inning on a single by Badaraco (1-for-4), ended with eight hits, including a 3-for-3 from Etts and a 2-for-4 from Pietronico, whose final batting average of .304 led the Highlanders.
 
Pietronico's 44 runs batted in this year matched DJ Roche (2011) and Kwesi Mitchell (2007) for most RBI in a season all-time for NJIT. Mitchell, who drove in his 44 runs in NJIT's first season of Division I competition, was in attendance to see his old team play on Friday afternoon.
 
UNF used five pitchers in Game Two, with the starter, Frank German (2-4) credited with the win. Sophomore Tommy Derer (2-5) made his first college start after relieving in his first 41 college pitching appearances. Derer was the first of six Highlander pitchers in the game. Sophomore lefty Justin Chin, who pitched 1.1 innings, was the only NJIT pitcher who escaped without allowing a run.