Northwestern College secured a spot in the postseason with a doubleheader sweep over Mount Marty this evening, 10-1 in game one and 11-8 in the nightcap. The Red Raiders finish the regular season with a 16-12 league record, 21-23 overall.
The Red Raiders will head to the postseason for the 11th time in Head Coach
Brian Wede's 13 seasons as the head of the baseball program.
Alec Rickabaugh pitched a complete-game, six-hitter in game one, improving his record to 4-4 on the season. The junior righthander allowed just one run and walked five in the full seven innings.
The Lancers pushed a run across in the top of the first inning off Rickabaugh as Reece Mimmick scored on a sacrifice fly by Mason Townsend. From there, it was all Northwestern as the hosts compiled 10 hits, drew three walks and took advantage of two Mount Marty errors in scoring 10 runs.
Northwestern batted around and scored five runs in the bottom of the second as the first six hitters reached base in the inning, all off Lancers' starter Jeremiah Mauch (2-5).
Austin Zylstra led off with a single, advance to second on a walk to
A.J. Nitzschke and scored after a double by Zach Rosson.
Josh Fakkema and
Mason O'Donnell followed with RBI singles,
Ben De Boer reached on a Lancers error and
Drew Schutt drove in the final run with a sacrifice fly.
Wede's squad added three more runs in the third with a sac fly by Fakkema and two-run single by
Sutton Derr. The final two runs came in the sixth when
Trent Thinesen led off with a pinch hit double and came around to score on a single by Derr.
Britton Yoder later hit a two-out double, scoring Derr.
Derr, Rosson and O'Donnell all had two hits and four other Red Raiders accounted for one hit each.
Mount Marty was led by Billy Hancock with two hits.
A six-run, fifth-inning proved to be the difference in the Red Raiders' 11-8 game two win. Tied at four after the Lancers scored three in the third and one more in the top of the fifth, Northwestern came back with a four-hit, six-run fifth, led by
Ben De Boer with a two-run single, RBI single by Derr and RBI doubles by Schutt and
A.J. Nitzschke.
Both teams scored once in the sixth to make the score 11-5 heading into th seventh. Mount Marty rallied, however, pushing two runs across in the seventh, one in the ninth and had the go-ahead run at the plate with the bases loaded before Nitzschke struck out the final two Lancer hitters.
Ben Zeutenhorst (2-3) earned the win, giving up six hits and three earned runs in five innings. Nitzschke earned his second save, striking out four over the final two innings.
Schutt and De Boer had three hits each to pace the Red Raiders' 13-hit attack. De Boer drove in three and scored two runs.
David Bell went 4-for-5 with a run and RBI to lead the Lancers. Alec Martin went 2-for-4 and drove in three; Reece Mimmack drove in two and scored one run. Corey Roach (0-3) took the loss, giving up three hits and six runs while not retiring a batter.
