The Red Raider baseball team had a double header on Tuesday night against the Dordt Defenders. The teams split the two games as the Raiders took the first game 4-1, but lost the second 4-3. After these two games, the Raiders are now 4-2 in conference play and 13-12 overall.
In the first game, Northwestern took a 1-0 lead in the second inning due to a leadoff double by junior Michael Callahan. Sophomore Austin Zylstra then hit a sacrifice fly to bring Callahan home.
Dordt fought back in the fourth inning tying the game at 1-1. Later in that same inning the Raiders put another score on the board with junior Matt Martin getting home off of a Dordt error.
The Raiders added a run in both the fifth and sixth innings making the score 4-1. Callahan had an RBI double in the fifth for a score and junior Reed Smith with an RBI single in the sixth inning.
In the second game the Raiders started the first inning with a score by a single RBI by junior Joe Done. NW held the 1-0 lead until the top of the third when Dordt Defender VanOtterloo hit a home run, bringing himself and two others home. That brought the score to 3-1 after the third inning.
The Raiders immediately came back in the fourth inning with an RBI from freshman Zach Rosson taking Zylstra home. The Raiders were still down by one going into the last inning. Done had a single RBI for the Raiders to tie the game in the bottom of the seventh to send the game into extra innings.
In the top of the eighth VanOtterloo hit his second home run of the game, bringing the Defenders up by one. The Raiders got two on base in their chance of the inning but were not able to convert. The Defenders won the second game 4-3 to split the two games. Done picked up the tough loss at the mound, but had two hits at the plate.
The Raiders are set to have a double header against the Hastings Broncos this Saturday here in Orange City in the hopes of improving their conference standings.
