Northwestern
Indiana
Baseball Defeats Indiana in Extra Innings, 6-5
4/13/2001 12:00:00 AM | Baseball
April 13, 2001
EVANSTON, Ill. - The Northwestern baseball team needed extra innings for the second straight game, this time winning 6-5 over Indiana.
Game one of the four-game series at Rocky Miller Park pitted Indiana's Brad Edwards against NU's Zach Schara (Madison, Wis./West). Edwards went 7.1 innings while Schara threw 9.0 innings in the no-decision. Freshman Dan Konecny (Ripon, Wis./Ripon) threw the 10th and picked up his first win (1-1) as a collegiate player.
IU jumped out to the early 1-0 lead, when Vasili Spanos hit a bases-loaded sacrifice fly to right field that scored Nick Evans in the first inning.
The Wildcats responded in the third, when leftfielder David Gresky (North Royalton, Ohio/St. Ignatius) led off the inning with the first of two doubles to left field. Gresky and centerfielder Steve Haake (Belleville, Ill./Gibault) are tied for the team lead with nine doubles. Gresky came around to score on an Eric Roeder (Onsted, Mich./Onsted) groundout to the pitcher.
In the top of the sixth, Indiana scored three runs on three hits and capitalized on one Northwestern error. The Big Ten's leading RBI manufacturer, Blake St. Clair, singled in a run, bumping his total to 41 for the season.
Down 4-1 with three innings to play, NU manufactured runs in each of the remaining innings to tie the score, 5-5, at the end of regulation.
In the 10th, catcher Joe Hietpas (Appleton, Wis./North) was hit by a pitch with one out to start the NU rally. He advanced to second on a Todd Morgan (Shorewood, Minn./Minnetonka) walk. With runners on first and second and one out, Travis Tharp (Boulder, Colo./Boulder) ended the game with a sharp grounder between first and second base. The IU second baseman was able to snare the ball, but he then overthrew first base which allowed Hietpas to score from second.
Offensively for the `Cats, Gresky was 3-for-4 with one RBI, while Hietpas added to his all-time doubles record with his 52nd career two-bagger. Roeder upped his team-leading RBI total to 25, going 1-for-5 with two runs knocked in. Tharp and rightfielder Jason Krynski (Niles, Ill./Niles West) each went 1-for-2, with Krynski tallying his 17th RBI of the season and Tharp scoring a run.
In Schara's nine-inning performance, he struck out eight and walked four, giving up seven hits. Schara leads the staff with 60 K's in 71.0 innings of work.
The Wildcats and the Hoosiers will continue the series with a doubleheader on Saturday and a single game on Sunday. First pitch both days is scheduled for 1 p.m. at Rocky Miller Park.
