ST. PAUL, Minn.- The University of Northwestern Baseball team opened up an important UMAC weekend series with Northland College on Friday night. The pregame rain ceased right around first pitch at Reynolds Field, and the Eagles used a big swing of the bat and great starting pitching to defeat the Lumberjacks 4-3.
Sam Szymanski (Woodbury, Minn./Homeschool) got off to a fast start (literally) on the mound by pitching a 1-2-3 top half of the first in less than ten pitches. In the bottom of the first,
Isaac Pilon (Robbinsdale, Minn./Robbinsdale Armstrong) showed the pop in his bat by crushing a two run homerun to right field after
Ben Spores (Arlington, Wash./Arlington) had hit a one out single. The two run bomb was the first of the sophomore's collegiate career and was the seventh homerun hit by the Eagles this season. Pilon is the fifth different Eagle to go deep in 2023. The first inning would not come to an end until
Mark Bligh (Sydney, Australia/Magdalene Catholic College) would score on a Northland error in the infield. After one inning of baseball, the Eagles led 3-0.
Szymanski was on cruise control through the first three innings. The right hander held Northland scoreless the first time through the batting order and did not allow a hit during that time. UNW's offense however continued to capitalize as they added another run in the bottom of the third. With one out,
Beau Rabey (Prior Lake, Minn./Prior Lake) reached on an error.
Grady Karges (Oriska, N.D./Maple Valley) then missed hitting the second homerun of the day for the Eagles by mere feet as he launched a ball off the right field wall. By the time the ball was back in the infield, Rabey had scored and Karges was sliding into third base with an RBI triple. The Eagles would not find a way to drive Karges in and he would be stranded on third with the Eagles holding a 4-0 lead.
In the fourth inning, the game would be flipped upside down. After firing on all cylinders early on, Northwestern's offense would go cold in the second half of the game. Northland, who was unable to get anything going off Szymanski, started to swing the bats better in the middle innings.
In the fourth inning, the Lumberjacks used a leadoff double to score their first run of the game when he came home on a groundball to Pilon at shortstop. Northland would get two more runs in the fifth inning thanks to an RBI groundball to
Aaron Severson (Columbia Heights, Minn./Columbia Heights) at second base and an RBI double down the left field line. All of a sudden, the Eagles' lead was only 4-3.
After scoring four runs in the first three innings of play, UNW would not score again in the game. However, it was not due to a lack of baserunners. The Eagles would get runners on base in nearly every inning and finished the game with seven hits and five walks. The Lumberjacks were able to make big pitches when they needed to and UNW would strand 11 runners on base in the contest.
Sam Szymanski (Woodbury, Minn./Homeschool) was the hero of the game as he took the mound in the top half of the sixth inning with a slim one run lead. The senior would buckle down and hold the Lumberjacks scoreless in the final four frames to guide UNW to the 4-3 victory. In the complete game shutout victory, Szymanski only gave up six hits and picked up ten strikeouts. The win was his fourth of the season.
Aaron Severson (Columbia Heights, Minn./Columbia Heights) and
Grady Karges (Oriska, N.D./Maple Valley) each had two hits in the game for the Eagles.
Ben Spores (Arlington, Wash./Arlington) had a hit and drew three walks as he got in base in four of his five plate appearances.
Up Next
UNW will conclude their weekend series with Northland tomorrow (Saturday, April 29
th) with a doubleheader at Reynolds Field. First pitch for game one is scheduled for 2:00 PM. After the second game of the doubleheader, the UNW Athletic Department will be running a ceremony on the field in honor of Head Coach
Dave Hieb who is retiring after 28 seasons as the Eagles' head coach.
