March 24, 2002
HOMESTEAD, Fla. - Strong pitching and a late arriving offensive attack downed the Harvard Crimson, 5-1, Sunday night at the 2002 Homestead Baseball Challenge in Homestead, Fla.
Harvard jumped out early taking advantage of Wildcat starter Gabe Ribas' (Brunswick, Maine./Brunswick) third walk of the season. After the free pass, the Crimson scored a single run on a two-out double to right.
NU answered in the bottom half of the first as Wildcat second baseman Josh Lieberman (Mundelein, Ill./Mundelein) got things started with a single to left center. He was stranded there after Harvard's rightfielder made a spectacular over-the-shoulder catch on Brandon Ackley's (Carmel, Ind./Carmel) deep drive to the fence.
Neither team made any scoring threats until the bottom of the fifth when NU catcher, Ken Padgett (Littleton, Colo./Arapahoe), lined a double down the leftfield line. He advanced to second on freshman Matt Brimmer's (Cedar Rapids, Iowa/Washington) groundout to first and scored on shortstop Jon Mikrut's (Wauconda, Ill./Carmel) sacrifice fly to left field.
The next inning, sophomore David Gresky (North Royalton, Ohio/St. Ignatius) hit a groundball single to left and advanced to third on an Ackley line drive to center. Junior Travis Tharp (Boulder, Colo./Boulder) hit into a fielder's choice scoring Gresky and giving NU the 2-1 lead. Tharp's RBI proved to be the winning run.
The Wildcats added some insurance runs in the bottom half of the seventh. Brimmer got things started taking one for the team, getting hit by a pitch. Mikrut followed with a frozen rope, doubling over the centerfielder's head, advancing Brimmer to third. Centerfielder Steve Haake followed with an infield single in which no base runners advanced. Following a passed ball that scored Brimmer from third, Lieberman hit a sacrifice fly to left, scoring Mikrut from third. Gresky and Ackley followed with back-to-back singles with Ackley's single scoring Haake.
The win improves NU's record to 5-8 on the season and 7-0 all-time vs. Harvard. The 'Cats are next in action tomorrow when they face Harvard at 2:30 EST.