Baseball Extends Winning Streak To Seven With Doubleheader Sweep Over Purdue Northwest

OVERVIEW – PURDUE NORTHWEST

SCORES: Northwood Timberwolves 13, Purdue Northwest Pride 10/Northwood 8, Purdue Northwest 7

RECORDS: Northwood 20-7, 7-1 GLIAC/Purdue Northwest 9-10, 2-6 GLIAC

LOCATION: Dowling Park – Hammond, Ind.

RECAP: Northwood wins a pair at Purdue Northwest Saturday afternoon (March 31), winning game one 13-10 before posting a comeback 8-7 victory in the nightcap.

GAME ONE HIGHLIGHTS (SEVEN INNINGS)

• The story of game one proved to be the weather – the contest was played with winds above 20 MPH.
• The Pride got on the board first with a run in the top of the first, which was followed by NU getting on the board thanks to a wild pitch that scored Javier Martinez to make the score 1-1 after one inning.
• Both team's offense got rolling in the second. A two-run triple for the Pride gave Purdue Northwest a 3-1 lead heading to the bottom of the inning.
• NU responded with six runs of their own in the bottom of the inning, starting with a sacrifice play by Brian Dombrowski to make it 3-2.
• Ryan McClelland followed with an RBI single to tie the game 3-3.
• After Colin McClelland plated a run on a fielder's choice, Nick Palmer followed with a run-scoring double to make the score 5-3.
• Travis Janes followed with a two-run triple, pushing the NU advantage to 7-3.
• Purdue Northwest came right back in the top of the third inning, scoring four runs of their own to tie the game 7-7.
• Once again, Northwood came right back with a big inning of their own, pushing across six runs in the bottom of the third. David Vinsky got things started with a sac fly to put NU back on top 8-7.
• The biggest hit of the frame was by Colin McClelland – his three-run homer got the Northwood advantage back to four at 11-7.
• NU kept the big inning going, making the score 13-7 by the end of the third by getting RBI doubles from Janes and Kyle Ziegler.
• That proved to be the final runs for the Timberwolves in the game. The Pride pushed across one in the fifth and two in the seventh before NU closed out the 13-10 victory.

GAME ONE STATS

• Runs/Hits/Errors – Northwood: 13/17/2, Purdue Northwest: 10/14/0
• Runners Left on Base – Northwood: 4, Purdue Northwest: 7
• Winning Pitcher – Ian Dimitrie (7-0): 6+ IP, 14 H, 10 R (4 ER), 5 K, 2 BB
• Losing Pitcher – Kyle Freel (2-2):  2 2/3 IP, 15 H, 13 R, 2 K, 2 BB
• Save – Lennon Gwizdala (9): IP, 0 H, 0 K, 0 BB

TOP NU PERFORMERS

• Janes: 3-4, 2B, 3B, 3 RBI, R
• C. McClelland: 1-3, HR (3), 4 RBI, 2 R
• R. McClelland: 3-4, 3 R, RBI
• Palmer: 2-4, 2 2B, 3 RBI, R
• Vinsky: 2-3, 2B, R, RBI
• Ziegler: 2-4, 2B, R, RBI
• Michael Karam: 2-4, 2 R

NORTHWOOD NOTES

• Because the games were originally scheduled to take place in Midland, Northwood served as the "home" team for all four games of the series.
• Dimitrie improved to 17-8 for his career at Northwood. His 17 wins are tied for second in program history with current teammate Tyler Jandron and former teammate Alex Lewandowski. Dimitrie and Jandron are one win behind all-time leader Trent Mulder (18).
• Gwizdala's ninth save of the season already ties him for the school record for a year with Jason Moczel (1998). Gwizdala now has 16 saves for his career, good for second place in school history behind Moczel (21).

GAME TWO HIGHLIGHTS (NINE INNING GAME)

• Northwood opened the scoring in the top of the first inning of game two on a Colin McClelland RBI single.
• The score remained that way until the fifth inning when both teams put together rallies. PNW started things with a pair of runs in the top of the inning, only to see Northwood score three in the bottom of the frame.
• Keaton Sackett got things going for Northwood in the fifth with a solo home run to tie the score 2-2.
• RBI singles by Martinez and Colin McClelland pushed the lead to 4-2 heading to the sixth.
• Purdue Northwest responded with a four-run sixth to take the lead back 6-4.
• The Timberwolves came back once again in the seventh with a pair of runs, the last of which was scored on a Janes sac fly to tie the game 6-6.
• The Pride got a run-scoring triple in the top of the ninth to give the advantage before NU made their final comeback of the contest.
• Janes got the RBI single to tie the score 7-7 before Sackett came through with the big hit to close things out. His two-out single scored Noah Ingram to give the Timberwolves the win.

GAME TWO STATS

• Runs/Hits/Errors – Northwood: 8/13/1, Purdue Northwest: 7/12/3
• Runners Left on Base – Northwood: 7, Purdue Northwest: 9
• Winning Pitcher – Lennon Gwizdala (1-0): 1 IP, H, R, 2 K
• Losing Pitcher – Alex Batistatos (0-1): 1 2/3 IP, 4 H, 2 R, BB, K

TOP NU PERFORMERS

• Sackett: 3-5, HR (1), R, 2 RBI
• Martinez: 3-3, 2B, R, RBI
• C. McClelland: 2-4, 2 RBI

NORTHWOOD NOTES

• Northwood has won seven straight games and has gone 14-1 in its last 15 games and 19-2 in its last 21 games.

UP NEXT

• Northwood will host Madonna for a non-conference, nine-inning game Wednesday (April 4). First pitch is set for 4 p.m.