April 16, 2002
CHICAGO, Ill. - Northwestern's baseball team traveled to Chicago's south side to take on Chicago State Tuesday afternoon. After being held hitless the first two innings and falling behind 6-0, NU exploded for 14 hits and won 12-9. Freshman Jon Mikrut (Wauconda, Ill./Carmel) led the offensive attack, hitting safely in four of his five at-bats. Two of his hits were home runs.
Freshman Stanley Finch (Lubbock, Texas/Cooper) got the call on the mound, throwing the first five innings in the no decision. Finch gave up seven runs, six of which were scored in the first two innings off three CSU home runs. After the second, Finch settled down, giving up just one hit, a solo homer to start the sixth.
Senior Andy Adams (Mt. Prospect, Ill./Prospect) came on in relief of Finch, throwing two innings. After a leadoff home run, which made the score 8-5 Chicago State, Adams gave up just one hit and struck out three to pick up the win.
Classmate Zach Schara (Madison, Wis./West) relieved Adams in the eighth, throwing one inning and striking out one. Freshman James Happ (Peru, Ill./St. Bede Academy) pitched the ninth, giving up one run on a walk and one hit.
Offensively, NU could not touch Chicago State starter Jason Squier until the third when they got on the board with three runs. In the inning, freshman catcher Pat McMahon (Mundelein, Ill./Carmel) lined a single to center and advanced to second on a Matt Brimmer (Cedar Rapids, Iowa/Washington) bunt. Junior second baseman Eric Roeder (Onsted, Mich./Onsted) was hit by a pitch, putting runners at first and second with two out. Sophomore David Gresky (North Royalton, Ohio/St. Ignatius) lined a first pitch fastball to center field and took second on a CSU error. On the play, McMahon scored from second and Roeder advanced to third. Roeder crossed the plate on a CSU wild pitch. Three-hole hitter Brandon Ackley (Carmel, Ind./Carmel) was up next, hitting a grounder to the third baseman who misplayed the ball, allowing Gresky to score and cutting the Chicago State lead to 6-3.
NU got one more back in the fourth when sophomore left fielder Jason Krynski (Niles, Ill./Niles West) doubled to right field and came around to score on a Mikrut single to left.
The Wildcats cut the lead to 6-5 in the top of the sixth when Mikrut blasted his first of two home runs deep over the left field wall.
Chicago State added to their lead in the bottom half, though, scoring two runs on two solo home runs to start the inning.
NU answered in a big way two innings later, exploding for six runs on six hits in the top of the eighth inning. Pinch-hitter Josh Lieberman (Mundelein, Ill./Mundelein) started things with a leadoff walk. Krynski followed with a two-run blast over the left field wall for his first round-tripper of the season.
With no outs and no one on, Mikrut singled to left and advanced to second on designated hitter Matt Thompson's (Libertyville, Ill./Libertyville) bloop single to left. McMahon was up next and head coach Paul Stevens put on the sacrifice bunt to put the runners on first and second in scoring position. McMahon laid down a perfect bunt that turned into an infield single. After a force at home on Ken Padgett's (Littleton, Colo./Arapahoe) groundball, Roeder hit a long sacrifice fly to center field, scoring Thompson from third and tying the game, 8-8. The 'Cats weren't done, as Gresky singled to right, bringing in McMahon and advancing Padgett to third. After a Cougar pitching change, Ackley greeted the new hurler with a two-RBI single to left, giving NU an 11-8 lead.
The Cougars went quietly in the eighth, bringing up NU in the ninth. With one out and no one on base, Mikrut tattooed his second home run of the game and third of the year for a 12-8 lead heading into the bottom of the ninth.
CSU scored a single run in the ninth, making the score 12-9 as NU out hit the Cougars 14-10. NU played errorless baseball, Chicago State committed five errors.
The 'Cats (11-18) are next in action when they host Penn State at Rocky Miller Park for a four-game conference series, beginning Friday at 3 p.m. The teams are slated to play a nine-inning contest on Friday.