MARVYILLE, Missouri – The Northwest Missouri State University baseball team picked up another MIAA win with a 14-10 triumph over Lindenwood University in the first game of a three-game weekend set on Friday.
Northwest (20-23 overall, 15-13 MIAA) generated 15 hits and turned it over to closer Trevor Dudar to get the final four outs in the three-hour, 52-minute contest.
Both squads dented the scoreboard in the first inning. Following a single to lead off the game, senior D.J. Miller clobbered a home run ball to deep left center field. The two-run shot allowed the Lions to take the early 2-0 lead.
In the home half of the inning, senior infield Logan Rycraft led off and was hit by a pitch to give Northwest its first baserunner. Rycraft would go on to be hit three times during the game. After junior infielder Calvin Rudolph reached on a hit by pitch, first baseman Conner Quick singled, scoring Rycraft and moving Rudolph to third. Rudolph scored on the very next pitch after senior catcher Alixon Herrera grounded out. Northwest tied the game at two runs apiece heading into the second.
After shutting Lindenwood down in the top of the inning, the Bearcats tacked on another run during a run down play that scored sophomore outfielder Matt Gastner. The Bearcats would add another single run in the third to take the lead, 4-2.
Following a quiet fourth inning by both squads, home plate got busy during the fifth. The Lions led off the fifth by scoring three runs on four hits and retaking the lead back from the Bearcats, 5-4.
Northwest had its largest scoring inning of the afternoon in the fifth, scoring five runs on five hits and stole the lead back from Lindenwood, 9-5. The Bearcats successfully loaded the bases twice during the inning, scoring the first two runs on senior infielder Mondesi Gutierrez’s single to center. Sophomore infielder Peter Carlson and senior infielder Jay Hrdlicka scored on the hit. Rycraft then slapped a bases-clearing double to deep left-center field, that scored senior outfielder Derek Hussey, Gutierrez and Gastner.
After another rare scoreless innings by both teams in the sixth, Lindenwood crossed a run in the top of the seventh attributed to successful small ball and brought the Northwest lead back to just three runs.
The Bearcat offense heated back up in the home half of the seventh, scoring three runs on two hits and bringing the score to 12-6. Following a leadoff single by Hussey and Rycraft being hit by a pitch, Rudolph reached third on a Lion error that scored the two runners. Rudolph would record the third run of the inning on the very next at bat after Herrera singled to center field.
Lindenwood showed its power in the eighth by smashing a two-out grand slam to claw back at the Northwest lead, 12-10.
Northwest added two insurance runs in the bottom of the eighth, initiated by a two-out single by Rycraft, who advanced to second on a balk. Rycraft scored on the next at bat after a RBI double was hit by Rudolph to right field. Succeeding, Quick recorded his second RBI of the game, hitting a single up the middle to score Rudolph.
Northwest head coach Darin Loe turned it over to Dudar as he recorded his eighth successful save of the season by getting the final four outs.
Sophomore Max Spitzmiller was accredited with the win for Northwest, tossing five full innings of work and allowing five runs (five earned) on nine hits and striking out two.
First pitch is set for game two of the series at 2 p.m. Saturday in Maryville.
NOTES: Quick extended his team-high 27-game on base streak … Gastner and Hussey recorded a three-hit outing, Hussey’s ninth on the season (team-high) … four Bearcats notched multi-RBI game (Rycraft, Quick, Herrera, Gutierrez).
— Northwest Athletics —