The Northwestern baseball team started out their conference season with two wins over Nebraska Wesleyan. With the 3-2 and 12-2 victories on Monday night, the Raiders are now 9-10, 2-0 in the GPAC, heading into the heart of the season.
In the front end of the double-header, junior Mike Zoellner threw 6.1 innings and bettered his record to 5-0. He allowed six hits, one earned run
while walking two and sitting down four on strikes. It was junior reliever Eddie Pantzlaff who relieved Zoellner and notched his third save of the year.
Senior Clint Gingerich provided the most pop at the plate, going 3-4 and picking up a RBI. Freshman Davis Bloemendaal racked out two singles in
his four at-bats. Juniors Chris Butler, Steven Englund and Matt Negaard combined for four swiped bags.
Junior Mike Shields hit a sac fly to score freshman Cody Groskreutz to open up the Raider scoring, and Gingerich knocked in Negaard to put the game at 2-1. Sophomore Taylor Morris drove in Englund on a single to add insurance and finalize the 3-2 game.
In the second game, NW’s bats were hot as they pounded out 12 hits and scored just as many runs in the offensive display. Bloemendaal hit 3-5 and scored two runs. Negaard, Gingerich, and sophomore Corey Van Gorp added two hits as well. The run production was spread throughout the
entire squad, as eight different Raiders scored and drove in runs. They scored runs each time up from the third inning on.
Sophomore Noah Bohlmann notched his first win of the year after pitching five innings and allowing one earned run while striking out two. Junior Jesus Santoyo and senior Drew Nonnemacher cleaned up the end of the game on the mound.
“We had the opportunities to win the first game like we did the second,” Bloemendaal said. “so that was definitely encouraging.”
The men open up their home season tonight against Doane. First pitch is at 5 p.m.
