DAYTON, Ohio - Playing their first game since Saturday, the 2-seed Oakland Golden Grizzlies defeated the 3-seed Northern Kentucky Norse, 13-8, in Game 4 of the 2023 #HLBASE Tournament at Nischwitz Stadium on the campus of Wright State University on Thursday, May 25.
Dating to the conclusion of the regular season, Thursday marked Oakland's fourth consecutive game against the Norse, three of which they won, and the Golden Grizzlies improve to 28-29 (18-12 Horizon League) and advance to Game 6 of the #HLBASE Tournament against the 1-seed Wright State Raiders on Friday, May 26 at 12 p.m. on ESPN+ (subscription required).
Northern Kentucky is now 30-26 (17-13 Horizon League) and the Norse battled the 5-seed Milwaukee Panthers in Game 5, an elimination contest, at 7:15 p.m. Thursday.
Making his eighth start and second-straight against the Norse, redshirt senior right-hander
Sean Fekete (4-3) had the best afternoon of his Oakland tenure thus far, working a career-high 6.1 shutout innings and holding Northern Kentucky to three hits while walking a pair and striking out two. He needed just 80 pitches to navigate these 19 outs, 50 of which were strikes.
Fellow redshirt senior right-hander
Brett Hagen and lefties
Tanner Ware and
Jake Matthaidess combined to record the final eight outs, with the final name on this list tallying a couple of strikeouts.
Beginning with an RBI double to right center off the bat of junior catcher
Brandon Heidal in the third, the Golden Grizzlies jumped out to a 10-0 lead after five innings Thursday.
Redshirt senior shortstop
Thomas Green and sophomore third baseman
Brandon Nigh collected a team-high three hits apiece and both drove in multiple runs, while graduate student second baseman
Jared Miller hit a two-run single in the sixth and sophomore designated hitter
John Lauinger was on-base twice and recorded his second RBI of the year and first since February.
Allowing six runs on six hits with four walks and the same number of strikeouts over three innings, Liberty Township, Ohio junior right-hander Clay Brock (5-5) took the loss for the Norse. Three relievers were able to take Northern Kentucky the rest of the way, with Huntington, California freshman Matthew Lopez and Cleveland, Ohio redshirt junior Andrew Mulhern, both righties, each handling at least two frames.
Edgewood, Kentucky graduate student center fielder Adam Schneider racked up a game-high four hits for the Norse and Phoenix, Arizona junior left fielder Colton Kucera and Fort Mitchell, Kentucky senior second baseman John Odom both chipped in two.
GRIZZVISION WITH HEAD COACH JORDON BANFIELD
STATISTICAL NOTES
- Driving in a combined six runs Thursday, Green and Miller are now tied for the team lead in RBI at 38
- Finishing 1-3 Thursday, junior right fielder
Lucas Loos raised his batting average to a club-best .320 (31-97), just ahead of senior left fielder
Ian Cleary's .318 (61-192)
- A remarkable 10-17 (.588) over the last four games, Nigh's 56 hits this season are second-most on the team, five back of Cleary
- Up to 51.2, Fekete is the fourth Golden Grizzly pitcher to work at least 50 innings this year, joining sophomore
Hunter Pidek (67.1), senior
Travis Densmore (66.2) and junior
Brandon Decker (62)
UP NEXT
Oakland's clash with Wright State Friday will begin at 12 p.m. on ESPN+ (subscription required).
The links to the ESPN+ broadcast and Live Stats are provided below:
ESPN+ (subscription required) |
Live Stats
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