May 5, 2008

Baseball Goes 3-1 at Colorado Mines

Lopers 4th Seed in RMAC's; HR's for Archer, Gonzales

       Kearney, Neb. – The Nebraska-Kearney baseball team scored 33 runs to sweep a double header at Colorado School of Mines Sunday afternoon, 19-8 and 14-10, in Golden.

      On Saturday, the Orediggers (19-32, 17-22 RMAC) rallied to win game one, 10-7, with the Lopers scoring a late run to win the nightcap, 7-6.

      UNK (29-25, 22-18 RMAC) will be the fourth seed in this week's six-team RMAC Tournament (May 7-10) in Grand Junction, Colo. Incredibly, Mesa State (30-9 RMAC) won nine in a row, including a four game sweep of Metro State this weekend, to win the regular season title by a 1/2 game over the Roadrunners (31-10 RMAC).

      Regis (27-20, 23-16 RMAC) and the Lopers will play a first-round game Wednesday at 3:30 p.m. Central. 

      UNK came into the weekend with the hope of winning the Plains Division. However, Regis won all four games at Colorado State-Pueblo this weekend to stop any chance of that happening.

      On Saturday, the Lopers saw Mines score four times in the bottom of the eighth to win game one. Two out doubles by Aaron Gremmer and Craig Matsuda brought three of the runs home.

      Junior Leon de Winter (2 for 4, two runs) and senior Joe Gonzales (2 for 4) paced an 11-hit UNK attack. Junior Ryan Sheldon got a no decision but did go five innings to break Ryan Johnson's school record for innings pitched in a season (89.0/1996).

      With at least one more start, Sheldon has thrown 91.2 innings in 2008. In the RMAC tourney, he'll need five strikeouts to break Neal Arnold's season record (93/1997).

      Senior first baseman Joe Nowaczyk also put his name into the record books as his eight putouts in the loss helped him pass Travis Kerkman (400/2005) on the UNK season list. After Sunday's games, he is at 423 putouts. 

      In the late game Saturday, Mines almost did it again, scoring four times in the bottom of the sixth inning to tie the score at six all. Elliot Riege hit a one out, three run homer to tie the contest up.

      However, an RBI fielder's choice by Nowaczyk helped UNK score the winning run in the seventh.

      Another 11-hit attack was paced by de Winter, who hit a pair of homers to finish 3 for 3 with three RBI's and two runs scored. Also, senior Trey Howell (2 for 3, two RBI's) hit his fourth homer of the year.

      On Sunday, the Lopers scored five in the fourth, seven in the eighth and had two three run innings to cross the plate 19 times in the first game.

      A 22-hit attack included homers from Howell, Nowaczyk and senior Joe Gonzales. For Gonzales, who went 5 for 5, that was his first dinger in a two-year Loper career.

      Despite having just one hit, senior Chris Gillaspy drove in a five while Howell had two hits and drove in four. Finally, senior Tyler Keeble and sophomore Blake Cover each had three hits.

      Kearney sophomore Jared Loschen won his sixth game by allowing three earned runs over six innings.

      The series finale saw UNK score one run in all seven innings. A four run third and a three run seventh helped the Lopers win the back and forth game.

      Sixteen hits included a 3 for 4 effort from Gillaspy while Cover went 2 for 4 and drove in three and junior Nate Swearer went 2 for 4 and had two RBI's. Howell hit another homer as did senior Cole Archer. That would be Archer's eighth homer at UNK but first since the 2006 season.

     Pictured below are Howell-Nowaczyk-Loschen.