ARKADELPHIA, Arkansas – The Northwest Missouri State University baseball team toppled Southern Arkansas in a slugfest Friday, 16-13.
Northwest captured its second win of the season. The Bearcats tallied 16 hits and had six players record multi-hit efforts against the Muleriders. Eight of the Bearcats’s nine starters scored a run and eight different Northwest starters secured an RBI.
It looked like the Bearcats would cruise to the victory after batting around in the bottom half of the first. Northwest plated eight runs as leadoff batter Mondesi Gutierrez secured two hits in the inning. The Bearcats sent 12 men to the plate and secured six hits in opening up an 8-1 advantage.
SAU whittled away at the lead by scoring two runs in the second and three more in the third. Northwest did not allow SAU to score in the fourth and the Bearcats took advantage by adding a pair of runs. Gutierrez doubled to left for his third hit in three at-bats. Gutierrez’s knock scored Logan Rycraft to give Northwest a 9-6 lead. Gutierrez advanced to third on a groundout and scored an error by SAU catcher Zach Muldoon to give Northwest a 10-6 lead.
However, the four-run cushion was short-lived as the Muleriders knotted the matchup at 10-10 in the top of the fifth. The Muleriders scored four runs on four hits but also benefited from a Northwest error and balk in the inning.
Northwest took an 11-10 lead in the bottom of the sixth. Connor Quick led off with a triple to left. Quick finished his circuit in the base paths when Peter Carlson followed with an RBI single to right. Northwest could not add to the one-run cushion as SAU threw out Enrique Gonzalez attempting to steal second for the final out of the inning.
SAU found themselves in the lead in the seventh. The key hit in the inning came on a two-round RBI triple to right field by Brett McGee that gave the Muleridgers a 13-11 advantage.
But the Bearcats refused to yield as they batted around for the second time in the contest and scored five runs in the eighth. Jay Hrdlicka began the rally with a leadoff walk and moved to third on a single by Quick. Carlson walked to load the bases. Alixon Herrera came through in the clutch with a two-RBI double to left center to even the game at 13-13. Calvin Rudolph kept the merry-go-round spinning with an RBI single to right that plated Carlson. Gonzalez singled down the left field line to score Herrera and up the margin to 15-13. Derek Hussey reached on an error that allowed Gonzalez to score and give the Bearcats a three-run lead at 16-13.
Reliever Trevor Dudar came in to close out the victory. Dudar struck out two and induced a lineout to right field for the final out. It was Dudar’s first save of the season after capturing 14 a season ago.
Gibson Brown earned the victory as he pitched 1 1/3 innings of hitless relief with two strikeouts and a walk.
Northwest will wrap up its trip to Arkansas on Saturday with its finale at 1:30 p.m. against Ouachita Baptist.
NOTES: Connor Quick recorded his first four-hit game of the season … Quick has begun the season with a six-game hitting streak and has four multi-hit games … Quick is hitting .481 on the year with 13 hits in 27 at-bats … Quick has also scored a team-best eight runs in 2019 … Peter Carlson extended his hit streak to five in a row.
— Northwest Athletics —