GAME ONE BOX
GAME TWO BOX
WAYNE, Neb. – The Northern State University baseball squad used a six-run fifth inning to win the first game of Sunday's doubleheader with Wayne State College by a 10-9 score before falling to the Wildcats by a 15-3 final in the second to finish with a split during the day.
The split brings the Wolves record to 5-32 overall on the year and 2-18 in the Northern Sun.
The Wolves were held scoreless during the opening three innings while the Wildcats jumped out to a 4-0 lead. That lead would be short lived, however, when the Wolves put one on the board in the top of the fourth and exploded for six runs in the fifth to grab a 7-4 lead.
The run scored by the Wolves in the fourth came on a sacrifice fly by Nathan Zacher that brought in Adam Brion who, like he has in most of the Wolves better scoring innings this year, was able to get on base by a leadoff walk.
The fireworks started for the Wolves in their big inning when Kelly Coates opened the inning by reaching on an error by the Wildcat shortstop. Travis Owen then doubled down the left field line, moving Coates over to third. Payton McCleary then walked to load the bases before a pinch hit single by Rob Smith scored Coates from third. A wild pitch then allowed all the runners to move up and Owen to score during James Paul's at bat. Paul then ripped a single to center scoring McCleary and moving Smith to third. Paul then stole second and Lucas Jung's groundout to shortstop scored Smith. Michael Cross then singled and Nathan Zacher doubled to left to score Paul. Ronnie Sellers then pulled pulled a single to right to score Cross and round out the Wolves scoring in the inning.
In the seventh inning up 7-5, Jung would lead off the inning with a single and then would motor around to score on a double to left by Cross. A single by Nathan Zacher would move Cross over to third and another single by Coates would bring in Cross to give the Wolves a 9-5 lead.
The Wildcats would add a run of their own in the bottom half of the inning to cut the Wolves lead to 9-6.
Northern added another run in the eighth on a single by Zacher that scored James Paul.
That last run would prove to be insurance when the Wildcats rallied in the bottom of the ninth to score three runs, but Sean Ramahlo was able to close out the inning preserving the 10-9 win for the Wolves.
Nathan Zacher led the Wolves with a 3-4 effort at the plate, featuring three RBI.
Michael Cross went 2-4 with two runs scored and an RBI.
Charlie Dunnick earned his first win of the year after he went six innings, allowing 10 hits and six runs (all earned) while striking out three and walking two.
The Wolves were the beneficiaries of the Wildcat's lack of timely hitting after the home team left 13 runners on base.
The second game didn't feature as many offensive fireworks for the Wolves as they were only able to grind out three runs on four hits, with the Wildcats countering with 15 hits and 15 runs of their own.
Brad Rintoul went 1-2 with a run scored and Ronnie Sellers went 1-3 with an RBI double in the fourth inning to lead the Northern offense.
Blaze Hanson took the loss after he allowed four runs (all earned) on six hits in 3-1/3 innings of work.
The Wolves will take a break from their NSIC schedule on Wednesday when they host Valley City state in a single nine inning game that is scheduled to start at 3:00 p.m.
Northern State University is an NCAA Division II affiliated school participating in the Northern Sun Intercollegiate Conference and is located in Aberdeen, South Dakota.
**GO WOLVES**
