April 5, 2002
EVANSTON, Ill. - Northwestern's baseball team opened its four-game weekend series with a 6-3 decision over the Spartans of Michigan State. NU improves to 8-13 overall and 2-3 in the Big Ten. MSU falls to 17-6, 2-3 in conference action.
Michigan State jumped out to an early lead, scoring a single run in the top of the first inning off Wildcat starter, Gabe Ribas (Brunswick, Maine/Brunswick). After two groundball outs to shortstop Jon Mikrut (Wauconda, Ill./Carmel), Ribas walked the No. 3 hitter Bob Malek who proceeded to steal second. Cleanup hitter Brady Burrill singled off second baseman's Eric Roeder (Onsted, Mich./Onsted) glove, scoring Malek from second.
Northwestern tied the score in the bottom of the second inning when Mikrut tripled to the right field corner, scoring first baseman Travis Tharp (Boulder, Colo./Boulder) who received a free pass from Spartan pitcher Bryan Gale.
The 'Cats opened things up in the bottom of the sixth, scoring five runs on five hits, including a pair of doubles. Ackley got things started with the first double of the inning and was followed by a David Gresky (North Royalton, Ohio/St. Ignatius) single. Tharp doubled and was followed by designated hitter Matt Thompson's (Libertyville, Ill./Libertyville) second hit of the afternoon. Thompson was replaced by pinch runner Matt Brimmer (Cedar Rapids, Iowa/Washington). Brimmer and Mikrut, who reached on an error, came around to score on Steve Haake's (Belleville, Ill./Gibault) single to left.
State closed the gap to 6-3, when leadoff hitter Brett Wattles hit his second home run of the year. It marked the end of the Spartan scoring as freshman James Happ (Peru, Ill./St, Bede Academy) relieved Ribas on the mound. Happ faced the minimum number of hitters in two innings, striking out three. He has now thrown 16.0 innings of scoreless baseball.
Offensively, Ackley finished 3-for-4, raising his average to .291 while Haake and Mikrut each drove in two runs. Tharp and Thompson had one RBI apiece.
The two teams reunite tomorrow afternoon for a 1 p.m. doubleheader at NU's Rocky Miller Park.