FORT PIERCE, Fla. – Friday was the eighth and final day of competition in Florida for the University of Northwestern Baseball team, who finished off its nine-game slate with a 7-inning doubleheader against Penn State Behrend, who began the 2026 season receiving votes in the d3Baseball.com Top-25 Poll. The two teams battled back and forth, trading leads in both games, but the Lions were able to come through late in both games, putting up five runs in game one's extra inning to win 12-8, and four in game two's bottom of the sixth to come from behind and win, 8-5.
Game One
After
Kason Pietruszewski (Warroad, Minn./Warroad) pitched a scoreless top of the first inning to begin game one against PSU-Behrend, the Eagles's offense gave him an early cushion.
Davis Winter (Wausau, Wis./Wausau East) and
Tony Greco (Janesville, Wis./Janesville Craig) led off the inning with a hit-by-pitch and a single, then
Jack Burns (Plainfield, Ill./Aurora Christian) hit a two-run single to score the pair with two outs. An RBI single from
Christian Raya (Moline, Ill./Moline) made the lead 3-0, but the Lions were able to tie the game in the top of the second with a three-run home run. UNW regained the lead in the bottom half, courtesy of a Greco sacrifice fly, but the PSUB offense stayed hot, plating two runs to take a 5-4 lead.
Northwestern was able to even the score in the bottom of the third inning when
Jayden King (Wahpeton, N.D./Wahepton Senior) followed up a Raya double with a sac fly. Pietruszewski was able to pitch a clean fourth, and his offense again picked him up with the go-ahead run in the bottom half, an RBI single from
Ben Hixon (Yorkville, Ill./Yorkville). The Lions responded with a pair of runs in the top of the fifth to briefly move ahead 7-6, but
Alex Klein (Olathe, Kans./Olathe Northwest) tied it back up, leading off the bottom of the frame with a solo homer.
After scoreless sixth and seventh innings, despite UNW getting a runner to third in the seventh, Behrend did its most damage yet in the eighth, scoring five runs to take a 12-7 advantage in the extra frame. The Eagles were able to scratch a run across when Hixon hit another RBI single in the bottom of the eighth, but the deficit was too much to overcome, resulting in a 12-8 loss.
Hixon and Burns each logged two hits and two RBI, while Greco and Raya each had two hits and one RBI. Raya and Klein delivered the only extra-base hits for Northwestern, clubbing a double and a home run, respectively. O'Rourke was credited with the loss on the mound despite only giving up three hits in two innings.
Game Two
The back end of the doubleheader was slightly lower-scoring, but provided just as much drama. Penn State Behrend was able to strike first off
Christian Raya (Moline, Ill./Moline), scoring two in the bottom of the first inning, but UNW was able to tie the game in the top of the second on back-to-back RBI singles from Winter and Greco. The Eagles took their first lead of the game in the third inning when Burns and Hixon scored on an error, making the score 4-2, and extended it to 5-2 in the fourth on an RBI double from Burns.
The Lions added two more runs off of Raya in the fifth to trim their deficit to one, and put up four more off of
Jeremiah Holmes (West Covina, Calif./San Dimas) in the bottom of the sixth to surge back in front, 8-5. With it being a seven-inning game, Northwestern had just one final chance to extend the game. The Eagles got two runners on when Pietruszewski was hit by a pitch and Winter singled with two outs, but were unable to push either across, resulting in an 8-5 loss.
Winter was the only Eagle with multiple hits in game two, finishing 2-4 with an RBI. Greco and Burns also provided one RBI apiece, with Burns' double being the only extra-base hit of the contest for UNW. Raya struck out five and gave up two earned runs in his five innings of work, and Holmes took the loss on the mound.
Up Next
Northwestern will return to Minnesota on Friday and is scheduled to host Hamline on Tuesday, March 17
th at 4:00 PM for its home opener. With a weekend snowstorm forecasted, stay tuned to unweagles.com and @unweagles on social media for updates regarding the status of the game.
