By DAVE O’SULLIVAN Publisher Around the fifth inning of New Jersey Institute of Technology’s game against Wagner College on Sunday, April 19, Johnny Malatesta’s teammates started staying away from him in the dugout. It’s an unwritten rule that if a pitcher has a perfect game going, you stay as far away from him as possible, lest you jinx baseball immortality. Malatesta, a freshman right-hander who was one of the top players in the Cape-Atlantic League last spring, sat down the first 23 Seahawks he faced and was four outs away from a perfect game before Anthony Godino ripped a clean single. NJIT eventually went on to win the game 4-1. Malatesta said it was nearly the closest he had ever come to pitching a perfect game. He hurled a no-hitter the summer after his junior year of high school while playing for his summer league team, the 9ers. He said he came within two outs of a perfect game that day before walking a batter. Johnny Malatesta, a freshman at NJIT who played his high school baseball at Vineland High, came within four outs of pitching a perfect game against Wagner last weekend. (Glory Days Magazine file photo/Dave O'Sullivan) Johnny Malatesta, a freshman at NJIT who played his high school baseball at Vineland High, came within four outs of pitching a perfect game against Wagner last weekend. (Glory Days Magazine file photo/Dave O’Sullivan) “It was pretty awesome,” Malatesta. “Around the fifth inning guys started coming up to me and congratulating me on a good inning, but they let me be.” Malatesta said he was fully aware of what was going on as he strode to the mound to start the eighth inning. He knew he needed just six more outs to complete the perfect game. “I was full of adrenaline knowing I only had to get a couple more outs. I just tried to keep going and hopefully they would keep hitting it to my guys,” Malatesta said. “The first two guys popped up to the catcher before that guy smoked one.” He said what made the afternoon special was having his parents in the stands watching. His father, also named John, has been the head coach at Vineland High School for the past several years and coached Johnny throughout his high school career. “After the game, I felt like it was a great performance and I was happy about it,” Malatesta said. “It was great that my dad got to see it and my mom was there, too.” Malatesta has made a big impact during his first season with the Highlanders (17-13-1). He’s 4-2 on the mound with a .379 ERA in nearly 36 innings pitched, and also is hitting .262 with 27 hits, 23 runs scored and eight RBIs. “It’s been going pretty well. I’ve been having a lot of fun,” Malatesta said. “It’s a lot faster (than high school). Everybody runs faster, hits the ball harder. But you can’t change anything, you just have to do what you know how to do.” Contact Dave O’Sullivan: sully@acglorydays.com; on Twitter @GDsullysays [adsense]