ST. PAUL, Minn.- The University of Northwestern Baseball team showed up at Reynolds Field on Friday with a tough task ahead of them. After dropping the opening game of the UMAC Postseason Tournament on Thursday evening, Northwestern needed to win two games to advance to Championship Saturday.
The Eagles were able to complete half of that tall task on day two of the conference tournament. Northwestern stayed alive by winning a 13 inning thriller against top seeded Bethany Lutheran, 8-3. The Eagles advanced to Friday's final game where they eventually saw their season come to a close. Crown defeated UNW 12-2.
Game One: #1 Bethany Lutheran
The opening day of the tournament saw both lower seeds come out victorious. This means that the first game of the day saw #2 Northwestern take on #1 Bethany Lutheran. The tournament is being held at the Eagles' home ball park, Reynolds Field, but the Vikings were the higher seed so they played as the home team. The winner would advance to the third and final game of the day where they would take on the loser of the Crown-Superior game. The loser would be eliminated from the tournament.
The Eagles needed a win to continue their 2024 season and Head Coach
Jesse Eikum gave the ball to one of the steadiest veterans on his team.
Nick Drinken (Randolph, Minn./Randolph) took the mound and pitched a gem as the Eagles looked to extend their season.
Drinken was perfect through three innings. The Vikings sent nine men up to the plate to start the game and Drinken set them all down. The right hander had three strikeouts after a single trip through the Vikings' order. UNW's offense was also stifled through three innings as the game was scoreless heading into the fourth. In the home half of the fourth, the Vikings finally broke through against Drinken. BLC hit a sinking line drive that dropped into centerfield and a two out, two run home run followed. BLC led 2-0 after four.
Drinken pitched another scoreless inning in the fifth before he allowed a couple of singles and a run in the sixth.
The Eagles entered the seventh inning trailing 3-0 and had not shown much life with the bats up to this point. All of that changed in the late innings (we call the seventh a "late inning", but in retrospect, this was only about the halfway point of the game).
Gilbert Garcia Jr. (Stockton, Calif./Saint Mary's) started the Eagles' rally with a lead-off double and
Caleb Vereide (Owatonna, Minn./Owatonna) drove him in with a single.
Braden Storts (Minnetonka, Minn./Minnetonka) bunted him over to second base before Vereide stole third base.
Bryce Crabb (Des Moines, Iowa/Grand View Christian) hit a sacrifice fly and the Eagles now trailed 3-2.
After Drinken set down the Vikings in order in the seventh, the Eagles tied the game in the top of the eighth. The first two UNW batters were retired, but back-to-back hits with two outs produced an Eagle run.
Ben Hixon (Yorkville, Ill./Yorkville) doubled down the right field line and
Aaron Severson (Columbia Heights, Minn./Columbia Heights) followed that with an RBI single. The game was now tied at 3-3.
The game would remain tied at 3-3 for a long time. Like, a really long time. No more runs were scored until the Eagles broke open the game in the 13
th.
Bethany Lutheran had their chances to score the go-ahead run. In the bottom of the ninth, the Vikings had runners on first and second with two outs. Drinken, who was still on the mound in the ninth inning, saw the count run full against BLC's hitter. The Eagles' veteran dropped a breaking ball into the inside part of the zone to freeze the batter and record the punch out.
Nick Drinken (Randolph, Minn./Randolph) came back onto the mound for the 10
th inning as fans in the stands compared him to Jack Morris in the 1991 World Series. Drinken gave up a lead-off single, caught a pop up from a bunt attempt for the first out, and struck out a batter. Unfortunately for the Eagles' ace, an out was not recorded on the play as the throw from the catcher to first base was off target. That was Drinken's last batter. The final line from his herculean effort on the mound was 9.1 innings, two earned runs, and nine strikeouts.
Drinken was now out of the game and in came
Dreyer Homan (Clara City, Minn./MACCRAY). Homan's outing was not as long as Drinken's, but it was just as heroic with the Eagles' season on the line. He pitched 3.2 innings of shutout relief and recorded his second win of the season.
Homan's heroics started by working out of the jam in the tenth. He intentionally walked a batter but retired the other two batters he faced, stranding the bases loaded. He stranded another runner on third in the 11
th, pitched a 1-2-3 12
th, and a scoreless 13
th.
The Eagles scored five runs in the top of the 13
th to blow the game open and secure the victory.
Aaron Severson (Columbia Heights, Minn./Columbia Heights) hit an RBI single,
Caleb Vereide (Owatonna, Minn./Owatonna) hit a sacrifice fly,
Bryce Crabb (Des Moines, Iowa/Grand View Christian) picked up an RBI with a bases loaded walk,
Mark Bligh (Sydney, Australia/Magdalene Catholic College) had an RBI, and
Braden Storts (Minnetonka, Minn./Minnetonka) scored on an error. UNW won the game 8-3 in 13 innings.
Game Two: #4 Crown
Crown lost to #3 Wisconsin-Superior 4-0 which set up a matchup with the Eagles in Friday's final game.
UNW was unable to overcome a hot start from Crown's offense. The Polars hit a solo home run in the first at bat of the game and added six more runs in the second inning thanks to four run scoring base hits.
Trailing by a touchdown, UNW got a run in the home half of the second thanks to an unearned run scored by
Ben Hixon (Yorkville, Ill./Yorkville). The Eagles' other run in the contest came in the eighth when
Caleb Vereide (Owatonna, Minn./Owatonna) hit a sac fly that scored
Mark Bligh (Sydney, Australia/Magdalene Catholic College).
Meanwhile, Crown scored another run in the sixth and three more in the eighth. UNW's season came to a close with a 12-2 loss to Crown in the UMAC Tournament.
Season Recap
After being picked fourth in the UMAC Preseason Coaches' Poll, the Eagles exceeded those expectations in 2024. The Eagles finished second in the UMAC Regular Season standings and qualified for the postseason tournament after not qualifying in 2023. UNW finishes Head Coach
Jesse Eikum's first season at the helm 20-23 and went 16-5 in UMAC Regular Season play. The Eagles went 4-0 against the UMAC Regular Season Champions Bethany Lutheran in 2024.
With the season ending on Friday, the Eagles are saying goodbye to four incredible seniors:
Bryce Crabb (Des Moines, Iowa/Grand View Christian),
Isaac Pilon (Robbinsdale, Minn./Robbinsdale Armstrong),
Jackson Sonquist (Minneapolis, Minn./Patrick Henry), and
Grady Karges (Oriska, N.D./Maple Valley). This quartet of Eagles have played a critical role in one of the best four year stretches in program history both on and off the field. Coach Eikum and his staff would like to thank the student athletes for their dedication to UNW Baseball and wish them well in their future endeavors.
