Rochester, Mich. – In the resumption of a contest that began Friday, April 15 but was suspended after four innings due to darkness, Oakland bested the Northern Illinois Huskies, 10-4, in a seven-inning tilt on Saturday, April 16.
Northern Illinois would win the final game of the three-game set, 9-5, but paired with a 16-14 victory in Friday's first game, the Golden Grizzlies still took two of three in the series.
With this 2-1 weekend, Oakland is an even .500 this season at 17-17 (7-5 Horizon League), while the Huskies are now 7-27 (6-12 Mid-American Conference).
Scoring in four of their six trips to the plate, the Golden Grizzlies racked up 13 hits in the seven-inning contest, led by second baseman
Brad Goulet and center fielder
Seth Tucker, both of whom are graduate students, with three apiece.
In consecutive at-bats in the second inning, Goulet launched his sixth home run of the year to left field and senior third baseman
Jared Miller went deep for the second time this season.
Working the four innings that took place on Friday – the minimum required for a starting pitcher to qualify for the win in a seven-inning game – junior left-hander
Travis Densmore improved to 3-1 by allowing four runs on five hits with a walk and five strikeouts.
Freshman righty
Aleksei Goldhill handled the three Saturday frames for his first collegiate save, facing 12 batters and giving up just one hit.
In the series finale, Northern Illinois scored three times in both the second and fourth innings and built up an 8-1 lead after five frames.
Oakland would chip away at this deficit with runs in the sixth and seventh and two more in the ninth, but ran out of time in their comeback bid.
Dominican junior designated hitter Carlos Aranda set the tone for the Huskies by going 4-4 in the leadoff spot with three doubles, two RBI, and a pair of runs scored. Sophomore third baseman Aaron Harper also had himself a nice afternoon, collecting three hits.
Now tied with freshman
Brandon Nigh for the team lead in batting average at .350, Goulet had three more hits, his fourth multi-hit effort in the last five games.
Dating to the March 29 victory over Saginaw Valley, Goulet has now hit safely in 13 consecutive games.
Making his second start of the campaign, graduate student right-hander
Quinton Kujawa took the loss for the Golden Grizzlies, dropping him to 0-1. The Murray State transfer allowed six runs (five earned) on nine hits and two walks over four innings.
Fellow graduate student
Chas Sagedahl, a lefty, and freshman
Hunter Pidek and junior
Brandon Deans, both righties, took care of the final 15 outs.
Tossing five innings of one-run baseball, senior right-hander Michael Lasiewicz earned his second win of the season for Northern Illinois, and redshirt freshman Matt Salomonson, another righty, worked the final four frames for the first save of his career.
Up next
After playing their last four games at home, Oakland will hit the road to battle the Big Ten Conference's Michigan State Spartans on Tuesday, April 19 at 6:35 p.m.
Set to host the Michigan Wolverines on Easter Sunday, April 17, at 1:05 p.m., the Spartans are 13-18 (2-6 B1G) in 2022.
