May 8, 2008

Hot Bats Help Baseball Win Another RMAC Tourney Game

Double Digit Run Total Again; Nowaczyk Breaks 20-Year Record

       Kearney, Neb. – The Nebraska-Kearney baseball team had 17 hits for the second straight game and scored five runs over the last three innings to beat Colorado School of Mines, 12-8, Thursday afternoon in an RMAC Tournament winner’s bracket game in Grand Junction, Colo.

        Fourth-seeded UNK (31-25) will play Friday at a time, and against an opponent, TBA. Both are contingent upon the Mesa State/Regis game tonight.  Fifth-seeded Mines falls to 20-33 and loses a fourth straight game to UNK.

       The Lopers, winners of six straight RMAC Tournament games dating back to last year, trailed 3-0 out of the gates today but tallied a double digit run total for the fourth straight contest.

      Junior Leon de Winter (The Netherlands) got UNK on the board with a two run homer in the second. That marks his fifth dinger of the year with four coming in just the last nine games.

      UNK would score two more in the third and fourth innings but still trailed, 8-6, heading into the bottom of the sixth.  

      A solo homer by senior Joe Gonzales (2 for 4, three runs) – only his second dinger in a two-year Loper career – in the sixth cut the deficit to one. 

      With two down in the seventh, senior Chris Gillaspy hit a run scoring single to tie things up. He would then steal second and advance to third on wild pitch. On that same errant pitch, sophomore Blake Cover would score the go ahead run.  

      UNK would then turn to the long ball to add some insurance runs in the eighth. Redshirt freshman Jason Trulin led off the inning with his third homer of 2008 and, after a walk to Gonazles, senior Trey Howell (2 for 5) belted his fourth homer in the last week to make it a four-run Loper advantage.  

     Arizona senior Ryan Wrobel won for the fourth time by allowing five earned runs in seven innings. Giving up13 hits, he didn’t walk or strikeout a batter. Also, Blair sophomore Ryan Seefus earned a rare save by fanning three ‘Diggers in two innings of work.

    In the fourth inning, senior first baseman Joe Nowaczyk had an RBI single to left center, his second run scoring hit of the game. That second RBI pushed his season total to 71, breaking the school mark of 70 (Tom Bales, 1988).

      Last weekend, Nowazcyk set a new UNK standard for putouts in one year. That total is currently at 441. Pictured below are Nowaczyk-Wrobel-Howell-Gonzales.