ST. PAUL, Minn. – After a couple of much-needed days off following five games in three days, the University of Northwestern Baseball team was back at Reynolds Field on Monday for a non-conference bout with Macalester College. Despite a dusting of weekend snow, the playing surface was cleared in time for the Eagles and Scots to do battle. A consistent output that saw Macalester score runs in six innings, including each of the first four, allowed the visitors to head back south down Snelling Avenue with an 8-1 win.
The Scots' approach of building a slow and steady lead gave them a 2-0 edge going into the bottom of the second inning, where it appeared Northwestern may be able to get on the board itself.
Christian Raya (Moline, Ill./Moline) hit a one-out single and advanced to second base on a wild pitch. When a throwing error was made from shortstop to first base, Raya tried to capitalize and go all the way home from second, but was thrown out.
Macalester added one run in the third inning and another in the fourth to increase its lead to 4-0. Finally, in the bottom of the fifth, UNW was able to get one across the plate, thanks to the bottom of its batting order.
AJ Kazel (Esko, Minn./Esko) and
Caleb Vereide (Owatonna, Minn./Owatonna) each singled to lead off the inning before
Logan Karnowski (Blaine, Minn./Blaine) doubled down the left field line to score Kazel. The top of the order came up with no outs, but wasn't able to plate any further runs, keeping the score 4-1.
The Scots tacked on three additional runs in the seventh inning and one in the eighth to extend their lead to 8-1, which would ultimately be the final, as the Eagles struggled to generate much offense the rest of the way. Their biggest threat came in the bottom of the ninth when
Caleb Hautajarvi (Barnum, Minn./Barnum Secondary) and
Beau Rabey (Prior Lake, Minn./Prior Lake) hit back-to-back singles with one out and advanced into scoring position on a groundout. However, another groundout stranded them each there to end the game.
Six different Eagles (Raya, Hautajarvi, Kazel, Vereide and Karnowski) contributed to their six hits as a team. Karnowski provided both the only extra-base hit and the only RBI of the day for Northwestern.
Noah Skarda (Nipomo, Calif./St. Joseph's) was credited with the loss on the mound after giving up five hits and three earned runs in 3.0 innings, while striking out two. Rabey was the only UNW pitcher who did not give up an earned run, and also struck out two in his one inning of work.
UNW was scheduled to take on Hamline at CHS Field, home of the St. Paul Saints, on Tuesday, but it has been postponed due to weather. The make-up date is yet to be announced. For now, Northwestern's next action is scheduled to be at 3:00 PM on Friday, April 4
th at Martin Luther, pending cooperative weather and field conditions. Stay up to date with all schedule changes by monitoring unweagles.com and following @unweagles, as well as @UNWBaseball, on X.
