Baseball Advances To GLIAC Tournament Championship With 5-1 Win Over Ashland

OVERVIEW – ASHLAND (GLIAC TOURNAMENT THIRD ROUND)

SCORE: Northwood Timberwolves 5, Ashland Eagles 1

RECORDS: Northwood 37-14, Ashland 32-19

LOCATION: The Corner Ballpark – Detroit, Mich.

RECAP: Top-seeded Northwood reached the Great Lakes Intercollegiate Athletic Conference (GLIAC) Tournament Championship with a 5-1 win over No. 3 Ashland in the third round of the event Saturday (May 12).

GAME HIGHLIGHTS

• The game was scoreless until the bottom of the fourth inning, when Northwood's Nick Palmer hit a solo home run to leftfield to put the Timberwolves up 1-0.
• Northwood extended their lead in the sixth inning on a Kyle Ziegler two-run single through the left side that made the score 3-0.
• A key part of the game came in the top of the seventh – Ashland had a run in with the bases loaded and one out. Junior closer Lennon Gwizdala got the job done for Northwood, getting a double-play groundout to end the threat.
• The Timberwolves then came right back with two runs in the seventh, which got going with a leadoff triple by David Vinsky. He later scored on a Keaton Sackett RBI single to make it 4-1.
• Northwood made it 5-1 when Nick Palmer doubled, scoring Sackett on the play to push the advantage to 5-1.
• Gwizdala shut down the Eagles the rest of the way, allowing two hits while striking out four in three innings to earn his 13th save of the season.

GAME STATS

• Runs/Hits/Errors – Northwood: 3/7/1, Ashland: 1/4/1
• Runners Left on Base – Northwood: 7, Ashland: 7
• Winning Pitcher – Max Bain (6-0): 6 IP, 4 H, R, 4 BB, 8 K
• Losing Pitcher – Josh Stover (1-6): 5 2/3 IP, 6 H, 3 R, 4 BB, 5 K
• Save – Lennon Gwizdala (13): 3 IP, 2 H, 4 K

TOP NU PERFORMERS

• Palmer: 2-3, HR, 2B, 2 R, 2 RBIs
• Vinsky: 3-4, 3B, R
• Ziegler: 2 RBI

NORTHWOOD NOTES

• Palmer's home run was the first of the GLIAC tournament in the seventh game of the event.
• Gwizdala added to his NU-record save total, now having four more than the second-highest total in school history (Jason Moczul – 9 – 1988). Gwizdala now has 20 saves and is within one of the career record of 21 (Moczul).
• Since joining the starting rotation in the Grand Valley State series, Max Bain has made four starts. He has gone 3-0 with a 1.73 ERA in 26 innings of work, striking out 24 while walking eight.

UP NEXT

• Northwood will now play in the GLIAC Tournament Championship Sunday (May 13) against an opponent and a time to be determined. NU could play Ashland, Davenport or Grand Valley State. Whichever team plays Northwood in the finals will have to beat the Timberwolves twice to take the title – NU need to win once.