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ST. PAUL – The University of Northwestern baseball team opened the 2014 Upper Midwest Athletic Conference (UMAC) Tournament with a 13-7 win over Northland College on Friday, earning an afternoon date against the tournament's top seed, College of St. Scholastica. The Eagles then lost to the Saints 6-4 and will face Bethany Lutheran College in a 10 a.m. elimination game at Bethel University on Saturday.

Against Northland, UNW used a big six-run third inning to build a solid lead, but things got tight down the stretch before Northwestern scored four runs in the top of the ninth to walk out of the stadium at Concordia-St. Paul with a six-run victory.

The second-seeded LumberJacks got on the board first, using a second-run home run by Colin Moberly to lead 2-0 in the bottom of the second inning.  Northwestern answered with a monster third frame, using seven hits to take a 6-2 advantage. UNW got three straight doubles from Tyler Osborn (Clive, Iowa/Des Moines Christian), Andy Haagenson (Minneapolis, Minn./Henry Sibley) and Andy Peterson (Rogers, Minn./Rogers) to help that run production as wind gusts started to become an issue for the Northland outfield. Mike Studer finished the inning with a two-RBI single.

The Eagles' lead grew in the fifth thanks to three runs that came much in part due to mistakes on Northland's defensive side of the field. Waiting on third base, Andy Peterson (Rogers, Minn./Rogers) scored on a botched stolen base pickoff with Ryan Sutterer (Anoka, Minn./Anoka ) going to second before the UNW first baseman scored himself on a wild pitch.

Trailing 9-2, Northland started to find some life with the Eagles helping the Jacks out some in the process.  With the bases loaded and no outs, UNW starting pitcher TJ Studer (Perham, Minn/Perham) got out of a jam allowing a single run in the seventh. Studer wasn't as lucky in the eighth though as the Northwestern senior got just one out, hitting two batters before Drew Tennyson (Stuartevant, Wis./Christian Life) was summoned to the mound. Tennyson's outing was just as much of a struggle though as Northland scored three more runs thanks to a trio of walks. Troy Nelson (Buena Park, Calif. /Buena Park) entered to get the final out the eighth before mowing down the Jacks in the ninth to earn Northwestern's second save of the year.

Leading by only two, the Eagles got four more runs in the top of the ninth. Sutterer blasted a home run over the 20-feet high left field fence before Austin Adamson (Willmar, Minn./Willmar) hit a base-clearing triple before scoring himself on a throwing error during the same play.

Studer earned the victory in a seven-and-one-third innings outing, yielding six runs on seven hits while striking out three LumberJack batters. Nelson no-hit the four batters he faced.

Six Northwestern players had multi-hit games, with Osborn, Sutterer, TJ Studer (Perham, Minn/Perham) and Adamson all collecting more than one RBI. Six of the 14 Eagles hits were for extra bases.

Things were a little tighter against the No. 1 seeded St. Scholastica, who advanced to Saturday's championship game after defeating the Eagles 6-4. Eagles starting pitcher Andy Peterson (Rogers, Minn./Rogers) got roughed up early, but the senior was able to settle down in the middle innings before using his bat to help UNW's cause on the scoreboard.

The Saints started with a five-hit first inning that produced three runs, adding two more runs in the second. The CSS lead went even farther as a solo run in the fourth made it a 6-0 score in favor of St. Scholastica.

Northwestern's first run of the game came in the fifth when an Aaron Rau (Woodbury, Minn./East Ridge) RBI groundout scored Matt Doss (Pillager, Minn./Pillager), who had worked his way around the base paths after a single to right field. Then came a hope-filled eighth inning for the Eagles as Peterson followed hits by Haagenson and Osborn with a three-run bomb over the left field fence to bring UNW within two. While the homer forced St. Scholastica head coach Corey Kemp to change pitchers, Sean Imes' arm did the trick as he forced Sutterer into a shallow fly-out to end the inning.

McMurray hit a two-out single in the ninth, but that was it for the Eagles' offense.

Northwestern was out-hit 11-7 in the game, but what really hurt was six errors by the UNW defense as two of the Saints' six runs went unearned on Peterson's stat line. The senior threw all eight frames for the Eagles, striking out seven while giving up 11 hits.

Now 19-18 overall, the Eagles are truly in win-or-go-home mode as a loss on Saturday would end UNW's season. Northwestern faces No. 4 seed Bethany Lutheran College at 10 a.m. at Bethel University on Saturday for the right to square off against the Saints again in the 1 p.m. championship game.