MANKATO, Minn.- Hey. How's it going? How was your weekend? Oh, it was good? Yeah… bet it wasn't as good as the University of Northwestern Baseball Team's was. No offense, it's just their weekend was tremendous.
UNW Baseball entered the weekend three games behind the Bethany Lutheran Vikings for the lead in the Upper Midwest Athletic Conference (UMAC) Baseball standings. The Eagles were in Mankato this weekend for a three game series with those conference leading, and previously undefeated, Vikings.
On Friday afternoon, the Eagles handed the Vikings their first UMAC loss of the season with an 11-4 victory. That win was impressive in itself but the Eagles' encore on Saturday was something else entirely. The Eagles went on the road and decisively took down the Vikings two more times: 8-2 and 15-5.
The three game sweep of Bethany Lutheran puts Northwestern in a tie for first place in the conference standings. The Eagles and the Vikings are each 12-3 in UMAC play and both have six remaining UMAC contests left in 2024. Each first place team has three games remaining with Wisconsin-Superior (who is still very much in the race at 10-3 with two games still to play on Sunday before the weekend is over). Northwestern's other three games are against Crown and Bethany Lutheran has three left against Minnesota-Morris.
Game One
If you are still interested in playing the "who had a better weekend game", we suggest that you don't go and compete with
Aaron Severson (Columbia Heights, Minn./Columbia Heights). Severson carried the Eagles all weekend long with his bat and his arm over the three games against BLC.
After driving in four runs at the plate in Friday's win, Severson was given the ball as the Eagles' starting pitcher on Saturday (Shohei Ohtani who?). Severson turned in his best start of the season against the best offensive team in the conference. He pitched seven scoreless innings to start the contest as UNW was able to build up a lead in the early part of the game. Severson would pitch a complete game and give up one earned run (two runs total) in the win.
The Eagles' offense got on the board in the top of the third inning when the top of their lineup came up to the plate for the second time in the game.
Braden Storts (Minnetonka, Minn./Minnetonka) and
Bryce Crabb (Des Moines, Iowa/Grand View Christian) got on base to start the inning with a single and a walk respectively.
Mark Bligh (Sydney, Australia/Magdalene Catholic College) hit an RBI single that allowed Storts to cross the plate and put UNW up 1-0.
The Eagles added a pair in the top of the fifth inning, this time spurred on by the middle of their order.
Mark Bligh (Sydney, Australia/Magdalene Catholic College),
Grady Karges (Oriska, N.D./Maple Valley), and
Isaac Pilon (Robbinsdale, Minn./Robbinsdale Armstrong) started the inning with back-to-back-to-back singles. Pilon's single was a perfectly placed bunt to load the bases.
Benji Bruce (Minneapolis, Minn./Maranatha Christian) grounded out but Bligh scored on the play.
Beau Rabey (Prior Lake, Minn./Prior Lake) delivered a two out, RBI single to score Bligh and give the Eagles a 3-0 lead.
The Eagles would not score again until the top of the eighth. Once again, the top of the order was leading off the frame. Storts hit a leadoff double and Crabb immediately traded places with him by hitting an RBI double of his own. Bligh singled and Crabb moved to third. Karges went the other way and doubled to left centerfield allowing Crabb to score and Bligh to move to third base. Pilon hit a groundball that was misplayed by the Vikings' second baseman and Bligh scored. Karges scored on a wild pitch later in the inning. The Eagles had put up a four spot in the eighth and led by a touchdown.
Crabb picked up another RBI by hitting a ground ball to the second baseman bringing home Rabey in the ninth. UNW cruised to a 8-2 win in the first game of Saturday's doubleheader.
Game Two
Game two was all about the third inning. The Eagles scored eight runs to take an 8-0 lead and would never trail in the ball game. No disrespect to the fourth and fifth innings because UNW scored a pair of runs in those frames as well. And we can't turn our nose up at the ninth because the Eagles added three there. But inning number three was the story in this one.
Here's the cliff notes version of the Eagles' third inning avalanche:
Isaac Pilon (Robbinsdale, Minn./Robbinsdale Armstrong) drew an RBI walk with the bases loaded,
Bryce Crabb (Des Moines, Iowa/Grand View Christian) and
Mark Bligh (Sydney, Australia/Magdalene Catholic College) scored on a throwing error,
Aaron Severson (Columbia Heights, Minn./Columbia Heights) was hit by a pitch with the bases loaded to pick up a painful RBI,
Beau Rabey (Prior Lake, Minn./Prior Lake) hit a sac fly,
Braden Storts (Minnetonka, Minn./Minnetonka) and Bligh hit RBI singles. Whew. 8-0 UNW.
Remember that
Aaron Severson (Columbia Heights, Minn./Columbia Heights) guy that we famously compared to Shohei Ohtani earlier in this recap? Okay, we admit that may have been a slight example of hyperbole. But, in our defense, he hit a two run home run in the fourth inning. In the same day that he threw a complete game on the mound. Come on, that is pretty Shohei-like, right? Severson's first home run of the year gave the Eagles a 10-0 lead.
Bryce Crabb (Des Moines, Iowa/Grand View Christian) was on the mound for UNW and had pitched three scoreless innings to start the game. The Eagles' ace ran into some trouble in the fourth as the Vikings put up a crooked number of their own. Bethany Lutheran scored five runs, highlighted by a three run home run, in the fourth to cut their deficit to 10-5.
Crabb would not falter again after the fourth inning. He didn't allow any more runs and finished the game with a line of eight innings, five runs, and nine strikeouts.
Caleb Hautajarvi (Barnum, Minn./Barnum Secondary) pitched a scoreless ninth and picked up two punch outs.
UNW scored two runs in the fifth thanks to a sac fly from Karges and an RBI single from Pilon. The Eagles' three runs in the ninth came off of RBI walks from
Ben Hixon (Yorkville, Ill./Yorkville) and Severson and an RBI single from Storts. The Eagles finished off their statement weekend with their biggest statement of all; a 15-5 win over the Vikings.
Up Next
The Eagles will play a nonconference game on Wednesday, April 24
th at Macalester at 4:00 PM. The Eagles will then return to Reynolds Field for another huge UMAC series against Wisconsin-Superior starting on Friday, April 26
th.
