NKU Baseball has made a habit the last few weekends to avoid sweeps in their matchups with conference foes, winning the final games of the series against both Milwaukee and Wright State. The Norse looked to buck that trend as they hit the road for a weekend matchup against Youngstown State (8-26 overall, 5-10 Horizon League).
NKU did indeed buck the trend by winning the first two of the series on Friday and Saturday to win the series and reverse the trend.
Game 1 on Friday night saw the Norse send Kaden Echeman to the mound in search of his second win of the season. Echeman gave the Norse just what they needed by going 6.0 innings, allowing only two runs on four hits while striking out nine.
The game was scoreless until the top of the fourth when Logen Devenport singled to the left side of the field scoring Tyler Shanefelt and putting the Norse up 1-0.
The Penguins responded in the bottom half of the inning by plating two runs on a homerun to go up 2-1.
Both teams failed to score the next three innings, but NKU found some late inning offense in the top half of the eighth inning when Shaneyfelt singled up the middle to score Jake Altman to tie the game at two. He managed to get himself into scoring position and ended up scoring on a passed ball to put the Norse up 3-2. Evan Fry pitched a scoreless ninth for his second save of the season.
Shaneyfelt led the Norse from the plate going 2-4 with an RBI and two runs scored. Jake Altman finished 2-3 with a run. Devenport finished 1-4 with an RBI and a walk.
Game 2 on Saturday afternoon saw the Norse bats remain hot as they jumped out to quick 2-0 lead compliments of a Devenport double down the line that scored Shaneyfelt. A Josh Williams single to right a few batters later scored Devenport and NKU was on top out of the gates.
After the Penguins cut the NKU lead in half, the Norse opened the second inning by causing all kinds of chaos on the base paths scoring three runs on a combination of YSU throwing errors and passed balls. Devenport got the ball rolling by advancing to third after a throwing error on a steal attempt. YSU’s failed pickoff attempt of Shaneyfelt allowed him to score along with Brennan Rowe to put NKU up 4-1. Another YSU wild pitch plated Devenport and the Norse led 5-1.
YSU cut the NKU lead to 5-3 in the bottom of the fourth, but the Norse bats awoke once again as they scored nine runs the last four innings to run away with a 14-3 win.
Conner Linn went 3.2 innings for the start, allowing three runs. Logan Wilson got the win out of the bullpen going 3.1 innings and striking out five. Aaron Massie threw two perfect innings to gain the win.
Logen Devenport went 3-5 with a walk, stolen base and three RBI. Tyle Shaneyfelt drew three walks, swiped a base, and scored three times all while knocking in three runs.
The series finale saw the host Penguins turn the tables and avoid the sweep as they turned a 5-5 game in the third into a route outscoring the Norse 13-3 the rest of the way on their way to an 18-8 win.
With the series win, NKU improved to 18-16 overall and 8-7 in conference. The Norse are currently in third place, five games behind conference leader Wright State and two games behind second place Milwaukee.
From Dizzy’s Desk:
“It was good to get back on track this weekend. Had some good pitching performances and the guys were pretty good all weekend. The pitching struggled in the series finale, but even with the loss the guys are in good spirits and happy to win a series on the road.”
Next Up: NKU welcomes in non-conference foe Southern Indiana on Tuesday afternoon before hitting the road again as they head to Ft. Wayne for an Easter Weekend matchup.
