FORT PIERCE, Fla. – Well-rested after a day off, the University of Northwestern Baseball team took the diamond on Monday morning for the fifth game of its Florida Spring Break trip, marking the halfway point of the slate. The Eagles took on Lasell College, hailing from Massachusetts, and took an early lead. The Lasers, however, took advantage of some Northwestern errors and scored the next eight runs to seize control and cruise to an 11-5 win.
Caleb Hautajarvi (Barnum, Minn./Barnum Secondary) got off to a hot start in his first pitching appearance of 2026, striking out six batters in the first three innings. UNW got on the board in the bottom of the second when
Parker Huebsch (Woodbury, Minn./New Life Academy) scored on a wild pitch, but a pair of Eagle errors in the top of the fourth allowed Lasell to surge ahead, 3-1. Hautajarvi added another strikeout on the fifth, but his luck ran out in the top of the sixth, when the Lasers put up their first three earned runs of the game, extending their lead to 6-1.
Izeyah Rojas (Covina, Calif./Walnut) relieved Hautajarvi in the top of the seventh and surrendered a pair of runs, but Northwestern got them back in the bottom half when
Davis Winter (Wausau, Wis./Wausau East) hit a two-run single, scoring
Ben Hixon (Yorkville, Ill./Yorkville) and
Alex Klein (Olathe, Kans./Olathe Northwest). Lasell answered right back with two more runs in the eighth thanks to another error, and UNW added one more in the frame as well, courtesy of a pinch-hit, RBI single from
Solomon Kardell (Coon Rapids, Minn./Legacy Christian Academy) with the bases loaded. After the Eagles left the bases loaded, the Lasers added one more insurance run in the top of the ninth inning. A
Christian Raya (Moline, Ill./Moline) sacrifice fly once again made the margin six, but that is where it would remain, as the final out clinched the 11-5 win for Lasell, who is now 3-0 in 2026.
Northwestern's five hits were all singles and spread amongst five players, with Winter driving in two runs, and Raya and Kardell each one. Huebsch and Hixon recorded the other two hits. Hautajarvi took the loss on the mound, giving up eight hits and three earned runs, while striking out seven.
The 1-4 Eagles will look to bounce back on Tuesday, when they take on Washington College (MD) at 12:00 PM CT in Fort Pierce.
