Baseball Rallies But Falls To Lake Erie 8-7

The Northwood University baseball team rallied from an early deficit but dropped an 8-7 contest to Lake Erie Friday night (March 21).

The three-game series was originally scheduled to take place at Northwood, but poor field conditions forced the set to be moved to Chillicothe, Ohio.

Lake Erie was the better team early on, scoring four in the third and three more in the fourth to open up a 7-1 lead in the fifth inning.  Northwood rallied at that point, however, scoring one in the fifth, two in the sixth and then three more in the seventh to level to score at 7-7. The rally was capped by a two-run homer by Travis Smith (Clare, Mich.) with two outs in the seventh.

The score remained 7-7 until the top of the ninth inning, when the Storm plated the game-winning run on an error by the Timberwolves. Northwood got a base runner on in the bottom of the ninth, but a double play ended the game.

Northwood finished the game with nine hits, while Lake Erie had 13. Both teams had one extra base hit in the contest.

Larsen Cronkright (Midland, Mich./Kellogg CC) and Anthony DiPaolo (Northville, Mich./Divine Child) each had two hits in the game. DiPaolo added two runs scored. Smith had two RBIs to go with his home run.

Jason Wimbury (Warren, Mich. / Kaskaskia CC) was the tough-luck loser in the game. He allowed one unearned run in five innings of relief.

The two teams will play a doubleheader Saturday (March 22). Game time is set for 1 p.m.