Week 6 Midweek Notes
March 18 - NKU (3-13) vs. Miami (Ohio) (7-9) -- 6 p.m.
McKie Field at Hayden Park (1,000); Oxford, Ohio
Series history: MU leads, 14-1
Last meeting: March 17, 2010 -- at MU (MU 3-1)
Live stats |
Live video |
Live audio
March 19 - NKU vs. Eastern Kentucky (7-12) -- 3 p.m.
Bill Aker Baseball Complex (300); Highland Heights, Ky.
Series history: EKU leads, 15-10-1
Last meeting: April 17, 1991 -- at NKU (DH) (EKU 6-3, NKU 19-6)
Live stats |
Live audio
HIGHLAND HEIGHTS, Ky. – The Northern Kentucky University baseball team continues non-conference play with a pair of midweek games, starting with a contest at Miami (Ohio) in Oxford, Ohio, on Tuesday and ending with a home matchup with Eastern Kentucky on Wednesday at the Bill Aker Baseball Complex.
First pitch on Tuesday at McKie Field at Hayden Park against the RedHawks is scheduled for 6 p.m. before the Norse host the Colonels for their official home opener at 3 p.m. on Wednesday. Links to live stats and John Asalon's audio broadcast will be available at nkunorse.com, as will live video for the Miami game.
NKU enters the week looking to break a six-game losing skid after falling to 3-13 on the year last weekend. Eastern Michigan captured wins in both games of Saturday's doubleheader by scores of 13-3 and 13-2, respectively, before the final contest of the scheduled three-game series was canceled due to inclement weather on Sunday afternoon.
For the second week in a row,
Cody Kuzniczci led the way for the Norse offensively. He went 4-for-8 at the plate and collected two doubles, including a three-run shot to right-centerfield in the opener on Saturday.
Jordan Procyshen also recorded two doubles against the Eagles, and
Logan Spurlin doubled down the left-field line to score
Brad Bohlen in the nightcap.
ABOUT MIAMI: The RedHawks enter Tuesday 7-9 overall after winning three games at the Flyer Classic, hosted by Dayton, over the weekend. Miami was on the winning side of a 20-11 slugfest against Canisius to open play on Friday before posting an 8-4 win over Dayton in its second game of the day. On Saturday, the RedHawks defeated Canisius once again, 7-4, but weather canceled the final day of the Flyer Classic.
Junior Max Andresen leads Miami with a .415 batting average. He has recorded five doubles, two triples and one home run, while he has batted in a team-high 13 runs and scored seven runs of his own. Sophomore Gary Russo is hitting at a .370 clip and leads the RedHawks with six doubles and three home runs. Junior Scott Slappey is batting .367, while senior Dan Walsh has scored a team-leading 13 times to go along with a .322 batting average. Sophomore Jake Romano rounds out the Miami players hitting over .300 with a .303 batting average.
The Norse are expecting to go up against senior right-hander Charles Zubrod in Tuesday's matchup. He has posted a 13.50 earned run average over 13 appearances, and he has struck out seven batters and walked four in 6.0 innings of work. Sophomore righty Wynston McMartin has made seven appearances out of the bullpen for the RedHawks and boasts a 1.59 ERA with nine strikeouts and just two earned runs over 11.1 innings of relief.
LAST TIME AGAINST MIAMI: Brian Weis threw three strong innings and Bryan Rose went 2-for-3 at the plate, but NKU dropped a 3-1 decision to Miami on March 17, 2010. The win gave the RedHawks a 14-1 lead in the all-time series with the Norse.
Miami struck early, using a lead-off double from Ryan Curl and back-to-back singles by Brad Gschwind and Adam Eaton to plate the game's first run in the bottom of the first inning.
An RBI single by Ryan Kaup and an RBI double from Jordan Jankowski gave the Redhawks runs in the fourth and fifth innings, respectively.
NKU fought back in the seventh, when Patrick Muth and Evan McDole hit back-to-back doubles with two outs to end the shutout bid for Miami.
Jarrett Casey took the loss for NKU, giving up a run on four hits with three strikeouts in one inning of work. Brandon Slusher, Josh Blaum and Jay Hale also got relief duty for NKU.
Mac Thoreson was the winner for Miami, throwing two innings of scoreless baseball in a predetermined start. The RedHawks used eight pitchers in the contest, including Jankowski, who started the game as the designated hitter and earned his second save of the season with a perfect ninth inning.
AGAINST THE MID-AMERICAN CONFERENCE: NKU is 6-23 all-time against members of the Mid-American Conference, including Miami's 14-1 lead. The Norse hold winning records against Akron (1-0) and Ball State (3-0) and are tied with Ohio (1-1) but have not fared as well against the rest of the league. Bowling Green (1-0), Kent State (2-0), and Northern Illinois (1-0) each have winning records against NKU.
Over the weekend, Eastern Michigan's doubleheader sweep of NKU gave the Eagles a 4-0 advantage. The Norse will face one more MAC opponent this season when Ball State heads to the Bill Aker Baseball Complex on April 2.
ABOUT EASTERN KENTUCKY: The Colonels are 7-12 and host Atlantic Sun Conference foe East Tennessee State on Tuesday. Eastern Kentucky suffered a conference series sweep at the bats of Southeast Missouri State last weekend. The Redhawks defeated the Colonels, 15-8, in Friday's opener before holding on for a 13-11 victory in the first game of a doubleheader on Saturday. SEMO then used a 9-4 win to complete the sweep in the nightcap.
Sophomore Kyle Nowlin is batting .347 to lead the Colonel offense. He has collected a team-high six doubles and five home runs, which ranks second in the Ohio Valley Conference. Senior Sean Hagen holds a .328 batting average with three doubles, four homers and a team-leading 19 RBIs and 12 runs scored. Hagen has successfully stolen eight bases in 10 attempts, as Eastern Kentucky has swiped 23 bases as a team.
Junior left-handed relief pitcher Ben Brooks has recorded a 1.38 ERA, which is tops among the pitching staff, and a 1-0 record over 11 appearances on the mound. He has struck out 10 batters while walking just one and surrendered two earned runs over 13.0 innings of work. Junior right-hander Ben Gullo, the projected starter for Wednesday, holds a 3.38 ERA and is 1-0 this season, and he has collected seven strikeouts and two walks over 8.0 innings.
NKU/EASTERN KENTUCKY SERIES: Eastern Kentucky holds a 15-10-1 lead in the all-time series between the two programs. The teams met for the first time on May 1, 1972, for a doubleheader in Richmond, Ky. The Colonels took both games by scores of 6-5 and 5-1, and won the seven of the first eight meetings.
NKU responded by winning eight of the next 11 games with a 10-10 tie at the Bill Aker Baseball Complex in the nightcap of a doubleheader on March 29, 1978, in that span as well. Eastern Kentucky then rattled off six straight victories before the Norse captured a 19-6 win on April 17, 1991, in the last meeting between the two schools.
NKU head coach
Todd Asalon faced the Colonels four times as a player for the Norse. During his career, the Norse split doubleheaders in 1980 and '81. NKU defeated Eastern Kentucky, 6-4, after dropping a 12-7 decision during the 1980 season, and the Norse won the opening game, 5-2, in 1981 before falling to the Colonels, 5-1, in the nightcap
.
AGAINST THE OHIO VALLEY CONFERENCE: NKU is 30-60-2 all-time against members of the Ohio Valley Conference. The Norse have faced six opponents from the OVC and hold a winning record over Tennessee Martin (1-0). In addition to Eastern Kentucky's 15-10-1 lead in the series, Belmont (1-0), Morehead State (17-6), Southern Illinois Edwardsville (24-13-1) and Tennessee Tech (2-0) each lead series against NKU.
The Norse will face Eastern Kentucky once more this season, as NKU will travel to Richmond, Ky., for a contest on April 9. The Norse welcome Morehead State to the Bill Aker Baseball Complex March 26 before heading to the Eagles' home field on April 30.
OFFENSIVE IMPROVEMENTS: After the first series of the season against Troy, the NKU offense was just batting .218 as a team. The Norse have since improved their efforts from the plate and have hit .265 as a team over the last 12 games, including a .252 batting average over the last two weekends.
After slow starts,
Cody Kuzniczci and
Cole Bauml have stepped up their offensive games as well. Kuzniczci held a .167 batting average after the first game of a four-game series at San Diego on Feb. 21. He has since posted nine multi-hit games and enters the Miami game with an eight-game hitting streak.
The sophomore from Madeira, Ohio, led the Norse in both games last weekend, collecting four hits, two doubles and three RBIs over two games. Kuzniczci now boasts a .344 batting average with five doubles and two home runs. He has also collected a team-high 22 hits and has batted in nine runs.
Bauml, a junior from Muenster, Saskatchewan, batted .063 through his first six appearances. But since a 2-for-4 effort with a home run and a double in the series finale against Georgia State on March 2, he has recorded a .318 batting average and is now hitting .211 for the season. Over his last six outings, Bauml has collected seven hits, three doubles, one home run and one stolen base.
SPURLIN'S STREAK CONTINUES: After recording hits in each of NKU's last three games, including a double in the nightcap of Saturday's doubleheader against Eastern Michigan,
Logan Spurlin has now safely reached base in each of the Norse's 16 games this season. Dating back to last season, he has made it to first base in the last 20 games for NKU.
The sophomore from Evanston, Ill., leads the team this season with a .368 batting average, .596 slugging percentage and .463 on-base percentage. He has collected seven doubles, which ranks fifth in the Atlantic Sun, and two home runs. He shares the lead with
Zac Asman in RBIs with each recording 10, and he has scored 10 times.
WEDNESDAY'S PROMOTION: The 2014 baseball schedule posters and koozies will be given away as part of opening day festivities at the Bill Aker Baseball Complex for Wednesday's game against Eastern Kentucky.
