NEWARK, NJ—Senior pitcher
Mark Leiter, Jr. and redshirt freshman designated hitter
Stephan Halibej were voted onto the 2013 All-Great West Conference first team and sophomore center fielder
Ed Charlton was a second-team honoree in awards announced Monday night at the Great West Conference Tournament banquet held in NJIT's Campus Center.
The awards, chosen in voting by the conference's eight head coaches, included 14 first-team picks and 14 second-team choices along with a Player of the Year, Pitcher of the Year, Newcomer of the Year, and Coach of the Year. Regular season champion Northern Colorado took Player of the Year in sophomore outfielder Jensen Park and Coach of the Year in Carl Iwasaki. Park, who leads the GWC in batting overall (.393) and in conference games (.421) has a slugging percentage of .570. Coach Iwasaki led his team to its first Great West championship with a 20-7 record in the regular season. The Bears are 29-20 overall. Newcomer of the Year and Pitcher of the Year went to Texas-Pan American ace Sam Street, who posted a 9-3 overall record, tops in the conference, with a league-best in innings pitched, while ranking second in strikeouts (91) and earned run average (2.45).
Street was second in strikeouts behind NJIT's Leiter, who fanned 101 batters in less than 91 innings. Included in that total was a 20-strikeout game against Chicago State, which ranks as the most in NJIT history in the most nationally in Division I for 2013. A second-team All-GWC pick in 2011, Leiter was named to the New Jersey Collegiate Baseball Association Division I All-State second team in 2013. He was Louisville Slugger National Player of the Week, the first NJIT player ever so honored, for his record-setting game vs. Chicago State. In addition to his game against Chicago State, Leiter's conference sea
son was highlighted by a seven-inning complete-game one-hitter in a 2-1 win at eventual regular season champion Northern Colorado. He registered 59 strikeouts in 45.1 conference innings.
His 2013 regular season stats show a 5-8 won-lost record with a 4.37 ERA and an opponents' batting average of .243. and a strikeout/walk ratio of 101-37.
Halibej, the first-team All-GWC designated hitter, drove in 26 runs, sharing the team runs batted in lead with sophomore infielder Mike R
ampone in 2013. Halibej, who missed the entire 2012 season due to injury, started slowly as he shook off the rust and adjusted to a new level of competition and was batting under .200 as late as March 30, with 17 college games under his belt. However, he went 2-for-4 in a non-conference win over Fairfield on April 3, pushing his average to .211. It was a steady climb after that, as the average reached a peak of .293 in the final series vs. Houston Baptist. The regular season totals were a .279 average, with a team-best 12 doubles, 3 home runs and 26 RBI. He batted .329 in conference games, with an on-base percentage in the Great West of .438 and a .541 slugging percentage. He hit nine of his doubles and all three of his home runs in conference play.
Charlton was NJIT's best all-around player, playing excellent defense in center field, batting .304, with 7 doubles, 4 triples, 3 home runs, and 23 runs batted in. He was also successful on 16 of 19 steal attempts. He did that despite a hamstring injury that kept him completely out of seven games and which first came in the midst of a 2-for-4, 3 RBI game against defending GWC champ Utah Valley. He batted .342 in 21 conference games.
NJIT is host of the 2013 Great West Conference Tournament, which will be played at Bears and Eagles Riverfront Stadium in Newark from May 21 to 25. The Highlanders open play on Tuesday with a 7 pm game vs. Houston Baptist. The eight-team double-elimination event begins at 9 am on Tuesday with three-time defending champion Utah Valley taking on North Dakota.
