April 19, 2008

Baseball Splits with CSU-Pueblo

Wrobel Has 2nd Straight Complete Game

       Kearney, Neb. – J– Senior Ryan Wrobel threw a six hit complete game and senior Joe Nowaczyk drove in three runs to help the Nebraska-Kearney baseball team beat Colorado State-Pueblo, 7-3, in the first game of a double header Saturday afternoon at Memorial Field.

      The Thunderwolves (21-24, 12-19 RMAC) ended UNK's season long six-game winning streak in the night cap, 15-7. The Lopers are now 23-21 (16-15 RMAC) on the year.

      A right hander out of Scottsdale, Ariz., Wrobel gave up a run scoring double to Thomas Cordova (2 for 3) in the first inning but didn't allow an unearned run the rest of the way.

      Fanning six and walking none, Wrobel wins for the third time in 2008 and tosses his second straight seven inning complete game. Last Saturday at Colorado Christian, Wrobel didn't allow an earned run and fanned four.      

      Kearney got all the runs it needed when it crossed home plate five times in the first. Blair junior Kyle Smith had a run scoring single in the set while a throwing error allowed two extra runs to score.

      Later, Nowaczyk (2 for 4, two runs) had an RBI single in the second and hit his team-leading eighth homer, a shot to dead center, in the sixth. He would also knock in a run in the second game.

      With 10 regular season games left, and the RMAC Tournament, Nowaczyk (Gretna) has 59 RBI's. The school record for RBI's a single season is 70, set by Tom Bales in  1988.

      Also in game one, lead off hitter Brad Hull (Lincoln East) went 3 for 3 and scored twice.

      Game two saw Mario Mattivi improve to 5-1 by scattering six hits over five full innings. He gave up an RBI single to senior Trey Howell (2 for 3) in the first inning but didn't allow UNK to score again until the fifth.

      Kearney sophomore Jared Loschen struck out six T-Wolves in a little over four innings and sat down Pueblo in order in the first, third and fourth. However, Pueblo scored six times in the second and three more times in the fifth to grab a 9-1 lead.

      In the second, Jerry Salazar (3 for 4, four RBI's) hit a two run, opposite field single to left and then Jon Proesl (3 for 4, four runs) hit a bloop double to right to score two more. Pueblo then tacked on four more runs in the sixth and two in the seventh.

      As a team, Pueblo had 18 hits with five different players having three hits a piece.

      For UNK, four different players had at least two hits, including Smith (2 for 3). He hit his fourth homer of the year, a two run shot, in the seventh.

    The two teams finish the series with a single nine inning game Sunday afternoon. Pictured below are Wrobel-Nowaczyk.