Baseball Clinches Share Of G-MAC Regular Season Championship With Sweep Over Lake Erie

OVERVIEW –  LAKE ERIE

SCORES: Northwood Timberwolves 25, Lake Erie Storm 4/Northwood 2, Lake Erie 0

RECORDS: Northwood (34-16, 25-5 G-MAC), Lake Erie (7-38, 6-24 G-MAC)

LOCATION: Gerace Stadium – Midland, Mich.

RECAP: Northwood baseball clinches a share of the Great Midwest Athletic Conference (G-MAC) regular season championship and the top-seed in the upcoming conference tournament with a pair of wins over Lake Erie Thursday (May 4), taking game one 25-4 before winning game two 2-0

GAME ONE HIGHLIGHTS (NINE INNINGS)

• A Matt Magno RBI double scored Myles Beale for the Timberwolves' first run in the bottom of the first.
• Rhett Evans added a single to right center to plate Magno for NU to go up 2-0 early.
• In the bottom of the second, Jacob Rybicki smashed his sixth home run of the year to extend the Timberwolf advantage to 3-0.
• Northwood's offense broke the game open in the bottom of the third, starting with a two-run single by Evans that drove in Blake Salamon and Magno.
• Carson Longstreth added an RBI double to left center to plate Evans.
• Longstreth then came home with an RBI single from David Jeffers.
• Rybicki followed with a two-run double to right center, followed by a run-scoring single from Myles Beale to put the score at 10-0.
• An RBI single gave Lake Erie their first run in the top of the sixth.
• Rybicki continued his strong day at the plate in the bottom of the sixth with an RBI double to left field.
• A single up the middle from Beale plated Rybicki to give NU the 12-1 advantage.
• An RBI groundout and a 2-run homerun gave the Storm three runs in the top of the seventh.
• NU put up another big inning in the bottom of the sixth. Evans stepped up to the plate in the bottom of the seventh and hit a two-run bomb to left center.
• Northwood added a run on a wild pitch and added two more unearned runs due to a fielding error.
• An RBI single from Magno rounded gave Northwood their sixth and final run of the inning to put the score at 18-4.
• The Northwood bench then put together another huge inning in the eighth.Alex Jarboe started the scoring off in the bottom of the eighth with a solo shot to left field.
• E.J. Clark then hit a double, advanced to third on a wild pitch, and scored on a throwing error for Northwood's twentieth run of the contest.
• A bases-loaded walk by Scott Selleck plated Josh Getz.
• Matthew Meyer then capped the game off in style, hitting a grand slam for his first career home run to make the final score 25-4.

GAME ONE STATS

• Runs/Hits/Errors: Northwood 25/22/0, Lake Erie 4/9/4
• Runners left on base: Northwood 10, Lake Erie 7
• Winning Pitcher: Derek Clark – (9-2): 5 IP, 5 H, 0 R, 6 K
• Losing Pitcher: Jon Poppy – (1-5): 2 1/3 IP, 12 H, 10 R, BB

TOP NU PERFORMERS

• Rybicki: 3-5, HR, 2 2B, 4 R, 4 RBIs
• Beale: 3-6, 2 2B, 2 R, 2 RBIs
• Magno: 3-4, 2B, 2 R, 2 RBIs
• Meyer: 1-1, HR, 4 RBIs
• Evans: 3-5, HR, 2 R, 5 RBIs
• Jeffers: 2-5, 3 R, RBI, 2 SB
• Jarboe: HR, RBI

NORTHWOOD NOTES

• Clark now is the Northwood school-record holder for career victories. He now has 22, passing the old record of 21 set by Tyler Jandron (2017-18).
• Clark's nine wins this season moves him into third on the Northwood single-season list, trailing only Jandron (12- 2017) and Ian Dimitrie (10 – 2018).
• Northwood finished the game with 13 extra base hits, giving them 33 extra base hits over their last three games (25 doubles, one triple, seven home runs)

GAME TWO HIGHLIGHTS (SEVEN INNINGS)

• After a game full of offense, it was the starting pitchers who were the story of game two.
• Rybicki led the bottom of the first inning off for Northwood with a double, but that proved to be the only hit for the Timberwolves until the sixth inning.
• Northwood took advantage of a pair of Lake Erie defensive miscues in the fourth to plate the only runs of the game.
• After a walk to Salamon, a three-base throwing error by the Storm plated Salamon for a 1-0 lead.
• Evans then came home on a passed ball to make the score 2-0.
• That is all that NU starter Zach Abbey would need. He tossed his third straight complete game, striking out 10 while allowing three hits and two walks.
• He out-dueled LE starter Zach Saffell, who allowed two unearned runs on two hits in six innings of work against a Northwood offense that had scored 65 runs in its last three games.

GAME TWO STATS

• Runs/Hits/Errors: Northwood 2/2/0, Lake Erie 0/3/1
• Runners left on base: Northwood 3, Lake Erie 4
• Winning Pitcher: Zach Abbey – (4-0): 7 IP, 3 H, 2 BB, 10 K
• Losing Pitcher: Zach Saffell – (1-3): 6 IP, 2 H, 2 R (0 ER), 2 BB, 2 K

TOP NU PERFORMERS

• Salamon: 1-2, BB, R
• Rybicki: 2B

NORTHWOOD NOTES

• The win clinched at least a share of the G-MAC Regular Season Championship. NU can clinch the title outright with one win or one Ashland loss.
• The victory also clinched the No. 1 seed in the upcoming G-MAC Tournament for the Timberwolves. NU could still finish tied with Ashland in the final standings, but Northwood holds the tiebreaker over the Eagles by winning the opening game of their four-games series earlier this season.
• This is Northwood's third regular season title in program history, joining the 2017 and the 2018 teams.
• Northwood's 34 wins on the season are the third most in program history, trailing only the 2017 (46) and 2018 (38) teams.
• Rybicki: 2B

UP NEXT

• Northwood will finish the regular season with a doubleheader against Lake Erie Friday (May 5). First pitch is set for 1 p.m.