ROCHESTER, Mich. – Evening the series at a game apiece, the Golden Grizzlies were defeated by the Northern Kentucky Norse, 11-9, on Friday, May 19 at the Oakland Baseball Field.
The Golden Grizzlies drop to 26-29 (17-12 Horizon League), while Northern Kentucky improves to 29-24 with the same mark in conference play.
Possessing these identical records in conference action, the battle for second place will come all the way down to the final day of the regular season, with the winner of Saturday's series finale locking up the 2-seed in next week's Horizon League Tournament, while the loser will fall to the 3-seed.
With the 3-seed having to play the 6-seed Purdue Fort Wayne Mastodons on the opening day of the tournament on Wednesday, May 24 and the 2-seed having the benefit of not playing their first game until Thursday, May 25, this difference in seeding could potentially be significant.
Redshirt senior right-hander
Sean Fekete (3-3) made his seventh start of the year for Oakland Friday and took the loss, finishing with a line of seven runs (four earned) on seven hits with four walks and three strikeouts over 4.1 innings.
Graduate student lefty
Christian Stelling followed Fekete and worked the next two frames, with
Bryce Konitzer, another redshirt senior right-hander, holding the Norse hitless while recording the final eight outs.
Joliet, Illinois junior southpaw Ben Gerl (5-4) picked up the win for Northern Kentucky, allowing four Golden Grizzly runs on six hits with four walks and five strikeouts over six innings.
Inhering a two-on, no-out jam in the eighth with Oakland already having scored two runs in the frame, Franklin, Indiana freshman righty Logen Devenport took the Norse the rest of the way, earning his fourth save.
Mason, Ohio junior first baseman Liam McFadden-Ackman hit two of Northern Kentucky's three home runs and drove in five and Alberta, Canada right fielder Cleary Simpson, a fellow junior, went 2-6 with three RBI.
Cutting the deficit to two, 11-9, with his third home run of the season in the ninth, graduate student second baseman
Jared Miller also tallied his 10
th double as part of a team-high three-hit day for the Golden Grizzlies.
Designated hitter
Ryan Dykstra and catcher
Brandon Heidal, both juniors, also turned in multiple-hit days and Oakland finished the afternoon with five doubles.
UP NEXT
First pitch of the Saturday, May 20 series finale at the Oakland Baseball Field is set for 2 p.m.
Senior left-hander
Travis Densmore (5-5, 5.62 ERA, 62 IP) will start for Oakland, while Vandalia, Ohio sophomore righty Kaden Echeman (5-2, 4.55 ERA, 63.1 IP) will go for the Norse.
