May 6, 2001
STATE COLLEGE, Pa. - The Northwestern baseball team moved up two spots to fifth place in the Big Ten postseason race with a scintillating, 5-4 win over Penn State Sunday at Beaver Field. Pinch-hitter Matt Thompson's (Libertyville, Ill./Libertyville) two-out double in the top of the ninth proved to be the game-winner as NU took 3-of-4 from the Nittany Lions over the weekend. The Wildcats improved their record to 23-28 overall and 11-13 in the Big Ten, and moved closer to a spot in the six-team Big Ten Championship tournament heading into a final weekend series at Minnesota.
The win went to Zach Schara (Madison, Wis./West), who ironically took the only loss NU had this weekend in the series opener. Schara came on in relief of starter Ryan Bos (Barrington, Ill./Lake Zurich), who went seven and one-third innings and allowed three runs on 11 hits.
This series had a dramatic ending, as Northwestern scored twice in the top half to break a 3-3 tie and then held off PSU in the bottom half. In the top half, Joe Hietpas (Appleton, Wis./North) hit a one-out single and was pinch run for by Andy Adams (Mount Prospect, Ill./Mt. Prospect). Wesley Robinson (Bradenton, Fla./St. Stephen's) then moved Adams to second with a groundout, before Dan Pohlman (Barrington, Ill./Barrington) singled. Thompson then brought Adams and Pohlman home with his double.
In the bottom half of the inning, Schara was tagged for a leadoff single by Chris DeRenzo before getting Chris Wright to pop up and pinch-hitter Donnie Wright to strike out. However, Chris Netwall singled to move DeRenzo to third, then pinch-hitter Brian Bishop singled to score DeRenzo and move Netwall to third. Schara ended the game in dramatic fashion, however, picking off Netwall for the final out.
Penn State got on the board first, scoring a run in the bottom of the first inning. Rod Perry started the rally with a single and stole second. He then advanced to third on a DeRenzo single and scored on a Chris Wright sacrifice fly.
NU came right back in the top of the second, scoring two runs on two hits. First baseman Travis Tharp (Boulder, Colo./Boulder) doubled to right center and advanced to third on a Lion error. On the play, designated hitter Todd Morgan (Shorewood, Minn./Minnetonka) came around to score from first base. Morgan had earned a free pass in his at-bat. Tharp then came in to score on third baseman Robinson's sacrifice fly to left. Pohlman also singled in the inning.
The Nittany Lions evened the score at 2-2 in the fourth on Matt Lindert's second home run of the year.
Tharp struck again in the sixth, stroking a two-out RBI single to center to score second baseman Eric Roeder (Onsted, Mich./Onsted) from third. Roeder reached on an error by the Lion second baseman and advanced to third on a pair of groundouts.
Penn State didn't stay down long, scoring a run in the its half of the sixth. John Richmond tripled to right field and scored on Zack Smithlin's single to left.
NU came up in the ninth, and Thompson came through with his heroics. Thompson went 2-for-2 in pinch-hit at-bats on the weekend.