Orange City, Iowa — The Northwestern College baseball team dropped the first two games of a four-game series against 20th-ranked Concordia, 5-4 and 9-7. Games three and four will be played on Friday afternoon, April 16, beginning at 3pm.
Game One: 5-4 loss
Down 4-1 after two innings, Northwestern rallied with a run in each of the third, fourth and fifth innings to tie the score 4-4. Jaden Snyder led off the bottom of the third with a home run to begin the rally and Eli Rash drove in Kip Cullinan, who led off the fourth inning with a walk, to make it a 4-3 score. Later, in the fifth, Noa Vogel hit a one-out single and came around to score the tying run after a couple of wild pitches and groundout from Colton Harold.
Concordia, however, grabbed the lead back in the top of the sixth when Joey Grabanski smacked a one-out, solo home run. Northwestern came back with a pair of hits in the bottom of the sixth, putting the tying run at third, but was unable to get the run in and tie the score at five.
Northwestern totaled eight hits, led by Rash who went 2/3 and RBI. Six Raiders had one hit each; Evan Olesen, Sutton Derr, Mo Watson, Snyder, Vogel and Cullinan.
Ben Zeutenhorst, the third of four Northwestern pitchers, took the loss despite giving up just two hits and one run in 3.2 innings. The junior struck out three. Olesen recorded the final out in the sixth and pitched a scoreless seventh inning for the Raiders.
The Bulldogs were paced by Grabanski (2/3, HR) and Jose Cevallos (2/3, RBI) at the plate. Beau Dorman added a two-run home run in the first inning. Shane Whittaker (4-0) earned the win, giving up two hits and one run in two innings. Nathan Buckallew registered his fourth save.
Game Two: 9-7 loss
With Northwestern in front 4-3, Concordia pushed four runs across on a pair of 2-run home runs, one by pinch hitter Jakob Faulk and one by Keaton Candor, to move ahead for good 7-4. Concordia added an insurance run in each of the sixth and seventh innings, getting a solo home run from Ben Berg and scoring an unearned run in the seventh, to make the score 9-4.
Kip Cullinan smashed a two-out, three-run home run in the seventh to put the final score at 9-7.
Brady Roberts (3-5) worked the final six innings for the loss, giving up 10 hits and six earned runs while striking out four.
Olesen and Snyder both had multiple hits to pace Head Coach Brian Wede’s offense; Cullinan drove in four runs and Derr scored two.
Nick Little (5-0) picked up his fifth win of the season, pitching a complete-game while striking out 13.
Concordia hit four home runs, one each by Cando, Faulk, Berg and Jayden Adams, who put Concordia up 1-0 with a leadoff home run.
