The Northwest Missouri State University baseball team split with the Washburn University Ichabods Monday winning game one in walk-off fashion, 9-8, before falling 7-5 in game two.
With the split, Northwest now sits at 15-31 overall and 14-22 in conference play. The game two loss officially eliminated the Bearcats from the post-season MIAA tournament.
Game one saw Jake Kretzer cap a six run, seventh inning rally by belting a walk-off grand slam to give the Bearcats the 9-8 win.
Washburn had jumped to an early 3-0 lead in the second before Northwest answered with two runs of their own in the third on Eric Swain’s tenth home run of the season.
The Ichabods extended their lead in the sixth plating two runs on two hits to take the 5-2 advantage.
Charlie Krueger would pinch-hit in the sixth and plate Kretzer to cut the Washburn lead to two.
Washburn rallied in the seventh extending their lead to 8-3 but the Bearcat bats would get hot in the home half of the seventh as Cameron Bedard would start the hitting with a double to right-center. Eric Swain would follow with a single through the right side and then Eric McGlauflin would single plating Bedard cutting the Ichabod lead to 8-4. Tyler Durant would reach base via a hit-by-pitch followed by a Steven Garber single scoring Swain. With the bases loaded, Jake Kretzer would belt his seventh home run, and first grand slam, of the season to center field giving the Bearcats the 9-8 win.
McGlauflin and Kretzer led the Bearcats offensively in game one with each recording three hits.
Josh Parrish recorded the win on the mound for Northwest pitching two innings of relief.
The Ichabods again jumped out to an early 3-0 lead in game two plating three runs in the top of the second.
Northwest would get on the board in the fifth as Steven Garber, Landinn Eckhardt, JJ Baccari and Cameron Bedard would all record hits helping plate two runs for the Bearcats.
The Bearcats added a run in the sixth thanks to hits from McGaluflin and Garber tying the score at 3-3.
The Ichabods and Bearcats would trade runs in the seventh before the Ichabods would go ahead in the eighth plating three runs off of two hits to take the 7-4 lead.
Northwest would get one run back in the eighth and load the bases in the ninth but were unable to come from behind once again.
Carson Smith suffered the loss on the mound in game two pitching 7.2 innings allowing ten hits and striking out four.
Offensively, Eric Swain and Garber recorded two this apiece in the loss.
Up Next: The Bearcats will host the Lincoln Blue Tigers in a four-game series to conclude the 2012 season. First pitch of game one is set for Friday at 2 p.m. from Bearcat Field.
— NWMSU Sports Information —