The Northern State baseball team split a pair of games to start out its season Tuesday.
The Wolves opened with a 6-3 win against William Penn (Iowa) in Joplin, Mo., before turning around and driving 25 minutes to Pittsburg, Kan., for a single game against Pittsburg State. Pittsburg State rallied from behind late in the game to edge the Wolves 10-9.
"This was the first time we've been outside pretty much all season," said NSU coach Curt Fredrickson. "Other than practicing in the parking lot out at Fossum Field on Sunday for a little bit, we haven't had a chance to get outside because of the three inches of snow or so that have been in the Aberdeen area. So I was really pleased with our defense. Our pitching was pretty good, with the exception of a couple of innings, and we hit the ball pretty well."
The Wolves trailed William Penn by a run in their first game before exploding for six runs in the bottom half of the third inning. Joel Backous and Adam Kampsen each smacked two-run singles in the inning.
Matt Reich turned in a good pitching performance on short notice for the Wolves in their win. The transfer from North Dakota pitched a complete game with four strikeouts.
"William Penn is a quality NAIA team," Fredrickson said. "They made it to the NAIA playoffs last year. It's kind of ironic because Matt Paulson, our original starter for the game, pulls a muscle in his back and Matt Reich gets 10 minutes to warm up and pitches a great game. His breaker was really working for him today (Tuesday). They have seven lefties and he kept them all from doing any kind of damage."
Pittsburg rallied back in the second game. Northern led 7-1 through 3 innings before a four-run bottom half of the fourth and a five-run sixth gave the host team the advantage. Daniel Shepard replaced starting pitcher Bryson Clark and relief pitcher Matt Brown to get the win and Michael Grosdidier came on in the top of the seventh for the save.
Kampsen and Benji Kieffer each batted 3-for-4 for NSU. Kampsen hit a three-run home run in the first and Kieffer added a triple.
T.J. Prentice batted 2-for-4 with four RBIs for Pittsburg , including a two-run homer in the sixth. Mickey Nichol finished 2-for-2 at the plate and Dan Walters was 2-for-3. Jacob Boan also hit a two-run homer in the sixth.
Story courtesy of Aberdeen American News
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Northern State University (located in Aberdeen, SD) is an NCAA Division II institution and a member of the Northern Sun Intercollegiate Conference (NSIC).
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