Box Score
Northern Illinois
scored once in the eighth and three times in the ninth inning on Tuesday
afternoon to come from behind and defeat Valparaiso 7-6 at Ralph McKinzie Field
in DeKalb, Ill.
Jeff Zimmerman
delivered a two-out, bases loaded single that landed just fair down the
leftfield line to score Jamison Wells with the game-winning run.
“I’m disappointed we
didn’t win the game, especially after we built the lead,” head coach Tracy Woodson said. “We gave away a couple of outs that came back
to cost us and had two opportunities with a runner on third and less that two
outs that we didn’t score. It was the
little things that came back to bite us.”
Northern Illinois
(21-21) jumped out to a 1-0 lead in the opening inning on a triple by Alex Jones,
scoring Alex Beckman, who walked with one out.
Valpo answered with
three in the second, taking advantage of three two-out hits. Bobby
Martin (Crystal Lake, Ill./Prairie Ridge H.S.) singled and Corey Thibault (Tustin, Calif./Foothill
H.S.) followed with a double putting runners on second and third. Michael
Morman (Rockford, Ill./Boylan Catholic H.S.) delivered a three-run home run
to left, his second round-tripper of the season.
The Huskies answered
with a run in the third on a two-out single by Troy White before Valpo added
two more runs in the fourth. Will Hagel (Arlington Heights,
Ill./Prospect H.S.) led off with a walk and moved up 90 feet on a balk. Robbie
Robinson (Brea, Calif./Olinda H.S.) reached on an error, scoring
Hagel. With two outs, Andrew Bain (Indianapolis, Ind./Park
Tudor H.S.) delivered a run-scoring single to make it 5-1 Crusaders, but the
Brown and Gold ended up leaving the bases loaded in the inning without scoring
another run.
A Valpo error and a
double by Joe Etcheverrey pulled the Huskies within two in the fifth before
Valpo added another run in the seventh. Chris Manning (Lake Forest, Calif./El
Toro H.S.) led off with a triple and scored one batter later on an error.
Leading 6-3 heading
into the eighth, Northern Illinois drew a two-out walk before Zimmerman doubled
to center, making it a 6-4 game.
In the ninth, two
singles and a walk loaded the bases before a hit batsman plated the first run
of the inning. A bases loaded balk tied
the game when the ball slipped out of Kevin
Wild’s (Brown Deer, Wis./Brown Deer H.S.) hand in the rainy
conditions. After an intentional walk
reloaded the bases, Zimmerman delivered the game-winning hit with two outs.
Wild suffered the
loss (1-1), working 3.1 innings of relief, the first three of which he allowed
just two hits. Ben Etcheverrey earned
the win (3-1) as the sixth and final pitcher of the day used by the Huskies.
Martin finished the
game 2-for-3 with two walks and two runs scored for the Crusaders while Morman
and Bain each had two hits as well. Wells
led Northern Illinois with three hits.
Valparaiso (20-24)
returns to the diamond this weekend for a big three-game weekend series against
Wright State as the top two teams in the Horizon League battle in Dayton,
Ohio. Saturday’s doubleheader begins at
12 p.m. CDT.