ST. PAUL, Minn.- The final weeks of the 2024 UMAC Baseball season have been chaos. That is not a bad thing; chaos is one of the many things we love about sports. Saturday was the final day of regular season games between UMAC opponents and the dust has finally begun to settle a bit.
One thing we know is the four teams that will be in the UMAC Postseason Tournament are the Bethany Lutheran Vikings, the Northwestern Eagles, the Wisconsin-Superior Yellowjackets, and the Crown Polars. Another thing we know: the University of Northwestern Eagles won their regular season series with all three opposing playoff teams.
After dropping the opener against Crown on Friday night, the Eagles defeated the Polars 11-7 and 8-2 on Saturday. Northwestern has locked up the two seed in the conference tournament that will take place from Reynolds Field (the UMAC changed the rule two seasons ago; the top seed no longer hosts the tournament. The conference has a predetermined host at the start of the season, and this year's tournament will be hosted by Northwestern).
Game One
Both games saw the Eagles follow a similar script offensively. They jumped out to an early lead and then put up a crooked number late in the game to secure the win. Game one was a back-and-forth affair until the Eagles pulled away late.
Grady Karges (Oriska, N.D./Maple Valley) and
Isaac Pilon (Robbinsdale, Minn./Robbinsdale Armstrong) each hit RBI doubles in the top of the first (remember, the games were played at Reynolds Field, but Crown was the home team) to give the Eagles an early 2-0 lead.
Why has UNW won every regular season series against opposing UMAC playoff teams this season? Well, there are a lot of reasons. One of the main reasons is that starting pitcher
Aaron Severson (Columbia Heights, Minn./Columbia Heights) has pitched his best games against these fellow playoff teams. Severson got off to a blistering start once again on Saturday. Crown's strength as a team is their ability to score a lot of runs as an offense. However, Severson shut them out through the first four innings. The Eagles were on top 2-0 as the game entered the fifth inning.
In the top of the fifth, UNW extended their lead.
Benji Bruce (Minneapolis, Minn./Maranatha Christian) drove in a run with a ground ball to second base, Karges came in to score on a wild pitch, and
Ben Hixon (Yorkville, Ill./Yorkville) singled home a run. 5-0 in favor of the Eagles.
In the home half of the fifth, Crown powered their way back into the game. Literally. They hit two home runs (a two run blast and a solo shot) to cut their deficit to 5-3. The Eagles did not respond in the sixth and Crown was able to come all the way back. In the bottom of the sixth, the Polars added two more runs and the game was tied 5-5.
Each team scored in the seventh inning. In the top half,
Isaac Pilon (Robbinsdale, Minn./Robbinsdale Armstrong) grounded out but scored a run. In the bottom half, Crown used a sac fly to score a run.
The game entered the eighth locked in a tie. The game would not leave the eighth tied. We have officially arrived at the "UNW puts up a crooked number late in the game" part of story.
Bryce Crabb (Des Moines, Iowa/Grand View Christian) walked with the bases loaded,
Mark Bligh (Sydney, Australia/Magdalene Catholic College) was hit with the bases loaded,
Braden Storts (Minnetonka, Minn./Minnetonka) and Crabb scored on a passed ball, and Pilon picked up another RBI groundout. The Eagles scored five in the eighth. Crown would get one run back in the home half but it was not nearly enough. UNW held on for an 11-7 win.
Game Two
In the second game of the doubleheader, the Eagles decided "if ain't broke, don't fix it". Once again, they scored early to take the lead and added runs late to secure the win.
UNW scored a pair in the first inning for the second consecutive game.
Bryce Crabb (Des Moines, Iowa/Grand View Christian) (the Eagles' starting pitcher) singled home a run before
Isaac Pilon (Robbinsdale, Minn./Robbinsdale Armstrong) drew a bases loaded walk. 2-0 Eagles.
All of the Eagles' remaining six runs came in the seventh inning.
Aaron Severson (Columbia Heights, Minn./Columbia Heights) hit an RBI double,
Jackson Sonquist (Minneapolis, Minn./Patrick Henry) and
Braden Storts (Minnetonka, Minn./Minnetonka) walked with the bases loaded, Crabb drove in a run thanks to a fielder's choice,
Mark Bligh (Sydney, Australia/Magdalene Catholic College) hit an RBI single, and Pilon picked up an RBI thanks to an error by the Polars. UNW scored six runs in the seventh.
Bryce Crabb (Des Moines, Iowa/Grand View Christian) was dominant on the mound on his way to picking up his sixth win of the season. The Eagles' all-time winningest pitcher went seven innings, gave up two runs, one earned run, and struck out eight batters. The Eagles went on to win 8-2.
Up Next
The Eagles will be the #2 seed in next weekend's UMAC Postseason Tournament. Their first game will be against the #3 seed, Wisconsin-Superior. The Eagles and the Yellowjackets will kick off the UMAC tournament at 4:00 PM on Thursday, May 9
th. #1 Bethany Lutheran will play #4 Crown at 7:00 PM that same day. However, we are getting ahead of ourselves. The Eagles have one more regular season game before the postseason begins. UNW will host Augsburg University for the second time this season on Monday, May 6
th in the final regular season game of the season. UNW and Augsburg also played in the first game of the season and UNW won in extra innings, 8-7. First pitch against the Auggies is scheduled for 5:30 PM.
