ST. PAUL, Minn.- Warning: you may get tired just reading about all the action that took place at Reynolds Field on Saturday. The University of Northwestern Baseball took on Wisconsin-Superior in the final two games of their three game season series. The doubleheader featured a lot of pomp and circumstance in the pregame.
To start the afternoon, Eagles' Head Coach
Jesse Eikum and his coaching staff held a pregame ceremony to celebrate their four graduating seniors:
Jackson Sonquist (Minneapolis, Minn./Patrick Henry),
Isaac Pilon (Robbinsdale, Minn./Robbinsdale Armstrong),
Bryce Crabb (Des Moines, Iowa/Grand View Christian), and
Grady Karges (Oriska, N.D./Maple Valley). This quartet (not a barbershop quartet. Don't ask them to sing, they're pretty good at hitting baseballs though) of Eagles will be leaving the Northwestern Baseball program at the conclusion of this season. This group has been with the Eagles through one of the most successful stretches in program history and their contributions on and off the field will be missed.
After the senior day ceremony, another pregame ceremony took place. Saturday marked the Celebration of 50 Years of UNW Baseball. Before game one of the doubleheader, the Eagles held a short ceremony honoring the legacy that this program has built over the past five decades. Many former Eagle players and coaches were in attendance and were celebrated for their contributions to this great program over the many years.
Whew. Getting tired already? Well, the joke is on you because we haven't even talked about the pair of eventful baseball games that took place at Reynolds Field yet. The Eagles and the Yellowjackets entered this series in a three way tie for first place in the conference (Bethany Lutheran is the other squad that entered the weekend at 12-3 in UMAC play). Superior took sole possession of first place on Thursday night by defeating Northwestern 9-5 in the series opener. The Eagles did not take back first place because of how the Bethany Lutheran series was structured, but the Eagles did jump past the Yellowjackets by sweeping them in Saturday's doubleheader and taking the season series two games to one. UNW won game one 11-2 and squeaked out a 4-3 win in the finale. Bethany Lutheran owns first place in the conference at 14-3 (they complete their series with Minnesota-Morris on Tuesday; they defeated the Cougars twice on Saturday), Northwestern is in second place at 14-4, and Wisconsin Superior is now locked in a tie for third place with Crown at 13-5 in conference play.
Game One
Game one of Saturday's doubleheader was the only game of the three between the Eagles and the Yellowjackets that was not a close, competitive ball game.
It is clear that
Aaron Severson (Columbia Heights, Minn./Columbia Heights) saved his best stuff on the mound for the best teams in the conference. Severson turned in his best start of the season (so far) his last time out in a win against Bethany Lutheran. He matched that performance on Saturday against Superior. The right hander went eight innings and did not give up an earned run. The Jackets got a pair of unearned runs off of him as they only mustered up four hits against the Eagles' starter. Severson struck out eight batters.
Dreyer Homan (Clara City, Minn./MACCRAY) entered the game out of the bullpen for the second consecutive game to pitch the ninth and he completed Severson's gem. Homan threw one inning, gave up a single hit, no runs, and punched out a pair of Superior hitters.
Offensively, the Eagles did not hit any home runs (if you're only interested in the long ball, please don't exit out of this story. Keep reading and see what happens in game two…) but they racked up 16 hits and drew four walks as they kept traffic on the base paths throughout the entire contest.
Braden Storts (Minnetonka, Minn./Minnetonka),
Bryce Crabb (Des Moines, Iowa/Grand View Christian), and
Mark Bligh (Sydney, Australia/Magdalene Catholic College) hit 1-2-3 in the order for Northwestern and they all had RBI knocks in the second inning. Storts and Bligh hit RBI singles that sandwiched Crabb's RBI double. Bligh's single scored two runners and the Eagles had a 4-0 lead after two innings of play.
In the third inning,
Benji Bruce (Minneapolis, Minn./Maranatha Christian) scored on a sac fly from
Gilbert Garcia Jr. (Stockton, Calif./Saint Mary's) Caleb Vereide (Owatonna, Minn./Owatonna) drove in
Ben Hixon (Yorkville, Ill./Yorkville) with an RBI single. UNW led 6-0 after three.
Fast forward to the sixth inning. The scoreboard still showed UNW holding a six run lead as the sixth inning began, but Superior scored both of their runs in the top of the sixth to cut the Eagles' lead to 6-2. The Eagles answered in the home half of the frame. Bligh hit another RBI single before Bruce drove in a pair with a triple. 9-2 UNW.
UNW added their final insurance runs in the bottom of the seventh. Vereide scored on a Yellowjacket error and Bligh picked up another RBI single. The Eagles won the opener 11-2.
Mark Bligh (Sydney, Australia/Magdalene Catholic College), the Eagles' three hole hitter, was 3-4 with a run scored and four runs driven in.
Benji Bruce (Minneapolis, Minn./Maranatha Christian) had four hits and two RBIs.
Ben Hixon (Yorkville, Ill./Yorkville) picked up three hits and scored two runs.
Game Two
Okay, if you only stuck with us because you love home runs, your patience has finally paid off. We've made it to game two, and game two was all about the long ball for the Eagles.
Bryce Crabb (Des Moines, Iowa/Grand View Christian), UNW's starting pitcher, walked a pair in the first but danced his way out of trouble on his way to pitching a scoreless first. In the bottom of the first inning, the fireworks started.
Braden Storts (Minnetonka, Minn./Minnetonka) hit a leadoff double before
Grady Karges (Oriska, N.D./Maple Valley) came up to the plate. Karges drove a ball to left centerfield (Karges is a lefty, so that is what we call "the opposite field". So, that's like, really impressive) for a two run home run to give the Eagles an early 2-0 lead. The bomb was the third of the season for Karges.
No runs were scored, from either side, starting from the top of the second inning all the way through the fifth. Crabb was doing a good job of continuing to work out of jams and keep the Jackets scoreless. Crabb ended up pitching a complete game and gave up nine hits and three walks in his nine innings. The Eagles' ace had to deal with baserunners in almost every frame but more times than not was able to work out of trouble without giving up runs.
In the top of the sixth, Superior finally found a way to push a run across against Crabb. The first two Jackets of the inning created the offense for UWS. A leadoff triple and a single gave Superior their first run. The Eagles' lead had been cut to one: 2-1.
The Eagles immediately got that run back in the bottom half of the sixth. The top of the Eagles order was due up and "old school" baseball fans were probably salivating at the mouth at how the Eagles used traditional baseball roles to score a run (which is good because the Eagles were celebrating 50 Years of UNW Baseball and alums from the 1970s were in attendance). The number one hole hitter (Storts) singled and stole second, the number two hole hitter (Crabb) hit a groundball to the right side to advance Storts to third, and the number three hole hitter (Bligh) singled him home. Old school baseball, baby. UNW led 3-1.
In the bottom of the seventh, new school baseball fans were able to have some fun too because the Eagles homered again. This time it was
Gilbert Garcia Jr. (Stockton, Calif./Saint Mary's) drilling a ball over the left field wall for a solo shot, putting UNW up 4-1. This was Garcia Jr.'s first home run of the season.
The Eagles took a three run lead to the ninth inning and had their ace on the mound going up against the bottom of the Superior order so it ended up being a really peaceful, uneventful ninth inning (this is sarcasm and if you were watching the game you would understand why this is funny). In all seriousness, the Yellowjackets strung together an impressive rally and were a footstep away from tying the game. The Jackets doubled, grounded out, doubled again, and then singled (the runner advanced to second base on the throw home). The next batter grounded out and moved the runner to third base. Here's the situation: the Eagles lead by one run (4-3), the Jackets have the tying run on third base, there's two outs, the Eagles' best starting pitcher is on the mound, and the Yellowjackets' best hitter is at the plate. Baseball is awesome. The Jackets' batter hit a ground ball to
Aaron Severson (Columbia Heights, Minn./Columbia Heights) at short stop who fired across the diamond and retired the runner on a bang-bang play at first base. UNW won 4-3.
Up Next
The Eagles play Crown College next weekend in a series that will determine who is crowned the UMAC Regular Season Champions (Bethany Lutheran and Wisconsin-Superior play each other that weekend as well; how about that scheduling? Well done UMAC.) However, before that, the Eagles have a rematch with Bethel University on Monday, April 29
th. The Royals swept the Eagles in early March. The game starts at 4:00 PM at Bethel's home field, Hargis Park.
