Austin Zylstra hit a two-run, walkoff home run with two outs in the bottom of the eighth inning to lead Northwestern to a 4-2 game one win over Midland in the Red Raiders home opener played earlier this evening. Northwestern dropped game two 15-3 for the split of the GPAC twinbill.
Northwestern moves to 2-4 in the conference, 8-12 overall.
Down 2-1 and just one out away from defeat,
Ben De Boer hit a double to left-centerfield to begin the Northwestern rally.
A.J. Nitzschke followed with an RBI triple, tying the game at two and then Zylstra hit his magical shot to straight away centerfield, his first home run of the season, to complete the rally.
Mason O'Donnell (2-1) earned the win in relief for Head Coach
Brian Wede's squad, giving up two hits and one run in one inning of work.
The featured a pitcher's dual between Northwestern freshman
Brady Roberts and Midland senior Andrew Davidson. Roberts, who picked up the no-decision, gave up five hits and one run in seven innings of work. Davidson (1-2) nearly matched the freshman, giving up six hits and four earned runs in 7.2 innings and was just one out away from sending the Red Raiders to defeat in game one.
Tied 1-1 heading into extra innings, Midland went ahead (2-1) when Dakota Thornton doubled down the left-field line off O'Donnell to score Matt Abdelnour with one out in the eighth. With only one out and runners at second and third, O'Donnell avoided further damage by getting the final two batters to ground out and strike out to keep it a one-run game.
Colton Harold put Northwestern up 1-0 with a solo home run in the second inning, the only extra-base hit off Davidson until the bottom of the eighth. Midland came back to tie it with a run in the fifth after an RBI double by Sam Braun, scoring Kyle Weber.
Nitzschke went 2-for-3 with an RBI and run scored while De Boer, Zylstra, Harold and
Josh Fakkema all had one hit each. Midland was led by Thornton, who was a perfect 4-for-4 from the plate.
Game two belonged to Midland as the Warriors scored nine runs in the fourth inning off three Northwestern pitchers en route to a 15-3 win. Leading 1-0 heading to the fourth, Midland sent 12 batters to the plate, scoring nine runs on five hits, including a pair of three-run home runs, for a 10-0 lead.
Northwestern closed to within 10-3 with a run in the bottom of the fourth and two more in the fifth on another home run by Zylstra. Midland, however, answered back with five runs in the top of the sixth, the big blow on a two-run home run by Abedlnour, his second of the game.
Luke Hughes (0-4) suffered the loss, giving up three earned runs in three-plus innings of work.
Trent Thinesen, Shad Wacker and
Liam Stubbe all pitched one inning of scoreless relief.
Harold went 2-for-3 to lead Wede's squad at the plate.
Andrew Snook (2-2) earned the win for the Warriors, giving up six hits, three runs in five innings. Midland totaled nine hits and took advantage of five Red Raider errors. Abdelnour went 2-for-3 with five RBIs and two home runs. Jacob Perez (2-4), Bryan Smith (2-2, 4 runs) and Kaiser (1-4, 3 RBI) were the other top hitters.
