Baseball Sweeps Wheeling Jesuit To Open 2013 Season

The Northwood University baseball team opened its 2013 season by sweeping a doubleheader against Wheeling Jesuit Friday afternoon (March 8). Northwood won the opener 2-0 before posting a 9-1 victory in the nightcap.

Wheeling Jesuit stands at 3-7 on the year.

In game one, Northwood scored all the runs in the opening game in the first inning.  Jake Oard (Beaverton, Mich.) led the game off a double and later scored on a RBI single by Andrew Fleming (Olivet, Mich. /Kellogg CC).  After Fleming stole stealing second, Travis Smith (Clare, Mich.) drove him home with a single to make the score 2-0.  Junior pitcher Jake Winicki (Birmingham, Mich./Brother Rice) made that lead hold up, tossing six shutout innings.  He allowed five hits and zero walks while striking out four.  Junior Steven Latos (Lloydminster, Saskatchewan / Thompson Rivers U.) came in and earned the save in his first career appearance.

Wheeling Jesuit plated a run in the first inning of game two, but Northwood took control in the top of the second inning.  The Timberwolves plated seven runs on five hits to go along with three Wheeling Jesuit errors.  Cody Rogers (Saginaw, Mich./Swan Valley) and Smith had RBI singles, while Anthony Dipaolo had a two run-double.  NU then scored single runs in the third and fourth innings on RBI hits by Oard and Jason Fracassa (Sterling Heights, Mich./Stevenson).  Jordan Snider (Bay City, Mich./John Glenn) earned the win on the mound, allowing one run on four hits while striking out six.

Northwood will take on Illinois-Springfield in a doubleheader Saturday (March 9) at 1 p.m.