ST. PAUL, Minn.- The University of Northwestern Baseball team hosted Wisconsin-Superior in the first of a three game series on Thursday evening. The game was originally scheduled for Friday afternoon but was moved to Thursday because of inclement weather expected on Friday. That ended up being an extremely wise decision by the administrators and coaches of each institution because Thursday's weather was sunny, beautiful, and perfect for baseball.
The weather wasn't the only reason to be excited about this matchup between the Eagles and the Yellowjackets. Northwestern and Wisconsin Superior, along with Bethany Lutheran, entered the day locked in a three way tie for first place in the conference. BLC doesn't begin their weekend series with Minnesota-Morris until Saturday, which meant that whoever won Thursday's night contest would have sole possession of first place. The visiting Yellowjackets are the ones sitting alone atop the conference for the moment as they topped the Eagles 9-5.
This game was about two things: offense and relief pitching. Both UMAC-leading offenses jumped on the opposing starting pitchers, but it didn't happen until the third inning.
After each team went down scoreless through the opening two frames, the Yellowjackets opened the scoring in the top of the third. An error by the Eagles' infield put a runner on and the next better hit a double to left field. Another theme in the ball game was Superior being extremely aggressive in sending runners around third and attempting to score. It worked at times and was unsuccessful at other times. This was one of the times where it was successful as the runner came all the way around from first base to score. The Jackets picked up a sacrifice fly to right field later in the inning to take a 2-0 lead.
UWS added another run in the top of the fourth and the Eagles trailed 3-0 entering the home half of the fourth inning. It was at this point that the Eagles were able to jump on Superior's starter and they did it in a big way.
Bryce Crabb (Des Moines, Iowa/Grand View Christian) hit a seeing eye single through the left side of the infield and moved to second base on a passed ball.
Grady Karges (Oriska, N.D./Maple Valley) picked up his second hit of the game in as many at bats with an RBI single. On the very next pitch,
Isaac Pilon (Robbinsdale, Minn./Robbinsdale Armstrong) turned on a ball on the inside part of the plate and roped it down the right field line. Karges advanced to third on the play.
Benji Bruce (Minneapolis, Minn./Maranatha Christian) stepped up to the plate and hit a sinking line drive to centerfield. The Jackets' centerfielder came in hard to try and make the catch but it landed and skipped past him. By the time the Superior outfielders were able to chase the ball down; Bruce had a triple and Karges along with Pilon had scored to tie the game at 3-3. With Bruce at third base, the next Eagle was retired.
Ben Hixon (Yorkville, Ill./Yorkville) stepped into the box and untied the game with one swing of the bat. Hixon launched his second home run of the season and the Eagles were on top for the first time in the contest, 5-3.
The next half inning, it was Superior's turn to erase a deficit. They answered with three runs in the top of the fifth inning. The Jackets would have scored more but, as we mentioned earlier, they were aggressive in sending runners home on the base paths. A runner tried to score from first base on a double but Bruce launched a missile of a throw to Crabb, who caught it, and fired it to
Mark Bligh (Sydney, Australia/Magdalene Catholic College) at the plate who applied the tag and cut down the runner. Wisconsin-Superior added a run off of a solo home run in the seventh inning.
With the Jackets leading 7-5, the arms out of the bullpen became the stars of the game. Superior had a reliever pitch five scoreless innings out of the bullpen to lead them to the win.
Caleb Hautajarvi (Barnum, Minn./Barnum Secondary) gave Northwestern two scoreless innings of relief out of their pen. Superior would add two more runs in the ninth and win the game 9-5.
The Eagles and the Yellowjackets will not play baseball against each other on Friday. The three game series will continue on Saturday, April 27
th with a doubleheader from Reynolds Field. Saturday marks the Celebration of 50 Years of UNW Baseball. Former players and coaches are invited to attend Saturday's doubleheader and receive recognition for their contributions to the legacy of Northwestern Eagle Baseball.
