FORT PIERCE, Fla.- The University of Northwestern Baseball team played 14 innings on Saturday morning/early afternoon in Florida; and the Eagles jammed about as much action as possible into those 14 innings. UNW played two seven inning games against Monmouth College and each game was high scoring and entertaining from start to finish. The Eagles dropped the opener 15-10 but bounced back with a 7-6 win in the finale.
Game One
The tournament that the Eagles participate in down in the Sunshine State does not provide a live stream for fans to watch the games. However, UNW Baseball has countered this by putting their Florida games on Facebook Live. Facebook's servers famously crashed earlier this week, and one couldn't help but wonder if the amount of runs Northwestern and Monmouth were putting up in game one of their doubleheader was going to bring the servers down once again.
The scoring started immediately. In the top of the first inning,
Aaron Severson (Columbia Heights, Minn./Columbia Heights) (the Eagles' starting pitcher) was the recipient of some bad luck. He picked up two strikeouts but both runners reached base thanks to a pair of dropped third strikes. Severson would end up allowing an unearned run when he walked a batter with the bases loaded.
Trailing 1-0, the Eagles' offense started their scoring avalanche early.
Braden Storts (Minnetonka, Minn./Minnetonka) and
Beau Rabey (Prior Lake, Minn./Prior Lake) led off the frame with a pair of singles. They would each come around to score thanks to RBI singles from
Mark Bligh (Sydney, Australia/Magdalene Catholic College) and
Owen Atherton (Mankato, Minn./Mankato East). Before the inning would end, Bligh would score on a wild pitch to give the Eagles a 3-1 lead.
Severson pitched a scoreless top of the second and UNW piled on the runs in the bottom of the frame.
Christian Raya (Moline, Ill./Moline) drew a leadoff walk and scored on Storts' RBI triple.
Grady Karges (Oriska, N.D./Maple Valley) hit an RBI double to score Storts and then scored himself when Bligh followed that up with an RBI double of his own. After an out was recorded, the Eagles' picked up back-to-back RBI doubles for the second time in the inning. This time the extra base hits came off the bats of
Benji Bruce (Minneapolis, Minn./Maranatha Christian) and
Isaac Pilon (Robbinsdale, Minn./Robbinsdale Armstrong). When the dust settled, the Eagles had scored five runs and now led the contest 8-1.
Unfortunately for UNW, after a blazing start, their bats would go cold in the middle innings. The Eagles were held scoreless in the third, fourth, fifth, and sixth innings. They were unable to extend their lead and the Scots from Monmouth would capitalize.
Severson pitched his second consecutive scoreless inning in the third. In the top of the fourth, he gave up a single run thanks to an RBI fielder's choice. The top of the fifth inning began with the Eagles leading 8-2.
The fifth inning was one to forget for UNW. The first batter of the inning was retired but the next 11 Scot batters would reach base. The Eagles used four different pitchers in what would be an 11 run frame from Monmouth. The big inning took the Eagles from being ahead by six runs to trailing 13-8.
Each team would score a pair of runs in the seventh and final inning. Monmouth got runs thanks to an RBI triple and a run scoring ground out and took a 15-8 lead. Down to their final three outs, UNW attempted to chip into the deficit. Pilon hit an RBI single and Raya drilled an RBI double to left field but it would not be enough as the Eagles dropped the opener, 15-10.
Mark Bligh (Sydney, Australia/Magdalene Catholic College) was a tough out at the plate going 3-3 with two RBIs and scoring three runs himself.
Isaac Pilon (Robbinsdale, Minn./Robbinsdale Armstrong),
Grady Karges (Oriska, N.D./Maple Valley),
Benji Bruce (Minneapolis, Minn./Maranatha Christian), and
Braden Storts (Minnetonka, Minn./Minnetonka) all had multi-hit games as well for UNW. The Eagles scored 10 runs on 14 hits.
Game Two
Somehow, after 25 combined runs in game one, game two found a way to exceed the drama and entertainment of the first game. The second game of the doubleheader may not have had over 20 combined runs; but it was a high scoring game in its own right.
Once again, the scoring started in the first inning. This time, the Eagles were playing as the road team and took their hacks in the top of the frame. Thanks to one out singles,
Beau Rabey (Prior Lake, Minn./Prior Lake) and
Grady Karges (Oriska, N.D./Maple Valley) were on base when the Eagles' biggest star from game one came up to the plate.
Mark Bligh (Sydney, Australia/Magdalene Catholic College) continued his strong day at the plate and singled through the left side of the infield scoring Rabey. Karges would come around to score when
Benji Bruce (Minneapolis, Minn./Maranatha Christian) hit a single to centerfield and UNW led 2-0 heading into the bottom of the opening inning.
Andrew Simon (Brooklyn Park, Minn./Mounds View) got the start on the mound for UNW in game two and he started his day by pitching a 1-2-3 first inning. Once again, after scoring early in the game, the Eagles' offense struggled to produce runs in the middle innings. This time, UNW was held scoreless in the second, third, and fourth innings.
Meanwhile, Monmouth once again attempted to erase an early Eagle lead. The Scots scored three runs in the bottom of the second and added another in the bottom of the fourth to take a 4-2 lead.
The late innings (it was only a seven inning game, so the "late innings" started a little bit earlier than normal) were a back-and-forth affair. First, UNW tied the game with a pair of runs in the top of the fifth thanks to a sac fly from
Owen Atherton (Mankato, Minn./Mankato East) scoring Bligh and a Monmouth error that allowed Bruce to score.
The Scots would immediately answer in the bottom of the fifth thanks to a triple that scored a run and put them back in the lead, 5-4. However, in the top of the sixth, a Monmouth error in the outfield allowed Karges to cross the plate and tie the game once again.
But in the bottom of the sixth, the seesaw experience continued as Monmouth scored again. This time it was an RBI single that didn't leave the infield that put the Scots on top 6-5.
Entering the top of the seventh, the Eagles needed at least one run to extend the game. Their offense delivered; not just pushing across the tying run but the go-ahead run as well.
Aaron Severson (Columbia Heights, Minn./Columbia Heights) singled and then
Owen Atherton (Mankato, Minn./Mankato East) was hit by a pitch to lead off the frame. However, the next two Eagle batters were retired. Freshman
Braden Storts (Minnetonka, Minn./Minnetonka) was the last hope for UNW; and the youngster came through with a massive swing. He drilled a ball to left field and Monmouth's left fielder appeared to have a bead on it. He tracked the ball, left his feet, dove, and extended to try and make a spectacular catch to end the game. He missed. Storts had placed the ball just out of his reach in the gap and the freshman had given the Eagles a 7-6 lead with a two run triple.
Storts was stranded on third base and the bottom of the seventh began with UNW clinging to a one run lead and needing only three outs to pick up their first win in Florida.
Caleb Hautajarvi (Barnum, Minn./Barnum Secondary) had relieved Simon in the sixth inning and retired the only batter he had faced. He was back on the mound in the seventh to try and finish off the Eagle win. It was not an easy road. He picked up the first two outs of the inning without breaking a sweat; striking out the first batter and getting the second Scot to fly out. Down to their final out, Monmouth picked up back-to-back singles and a walk to load the bases. With the game on the line, Hautajarvi picked up a huge strikeout to end the game and give the Eagles a 7-6 victory.
Up Next
Tomorrow (Sunday, March 10
th), the Eagles will get a much needed day of rest after a Saturday that was action packed. On Monday, their Florida schedule continues with a game against Western Connecticut State.
