DAYTON, Ohio – A sacrifice fly by Andrew McCafferty brought Derrick Garcia home in the bottom of the ninth inning to lift the Wright State University baseball team to a 4-3 victory over Northern Kentucky University on Wednesday in nonconference action.
After NKU (4-13) tied the game in the top of the final inning, Jason DeFevers drew a walk to lead off the bottom half and Garcia replaced him on the base path. A Norse pitching change followed, and a sacrifice bunt from Mark Fowler sent Garcia to second.
Mitch Roman struck out swinging, but he reached base as Garcia went to third on a
Justin Watts wild pitch, sending McCafferty to the plate. McCafferty then sent the first pitch he saw into
Anthony Vagnier's glove in right field, but Garcia had enough time to come home for the Raiders win.
Wright State (12-6) opened the game's scoring in the bottom of the second when John Brodner hit an infield single to bring Michael Timm home for a 1-0 lead, but NKU came even in the fifth.
Ryan LeFevers drew a lead-off walk before he went to second on a sacrifice bunt from Vagnier. A
Brad Bohlen ground out sent LeFevers to third, and LeFevers scored on a
Dominic Mercurio single to center field.
The Raiders answered in the bottom of the fifth with an RBI double to left field by Fowler, which allowed Sean Murphy to score for a 2-1 advantage. Wright State added a run in the seventh on a bases-loaded single by Roman, bringing Brodner around to score, to push the Raiders ahead, 3-1.
NKU made the game interesting in the top of the ninth.
Kyle Colletta was walked to spark the Norse rally, and
Caleb Lonkard was sent in to pinch run for Colletta.
Trey Ganns followed with a walk and was replaced at first by
Ryan Hinz.
A
David Head single to center field loaded the bases before LeFevers sent an 0-2 Andrew Elliott pitch into center field, and Lonkard and Hinz scored to tie the game at 3-all, setting the stage for McCafferty's walk-off sacrifice fly.
Timm and Brodner led the way for Wright State, going 2-for-4 from the plate with one run scored. Timm recorded a double, while Brodner drove in one run. Roman went 2-for-5 for the Raiders, who collected nine hits and left eight runners on base.
Elliott (1-2) earned his first victory of the season, pitching one inning of relief. He gave up two runs on two hits, and he walked two batters and struck out one. Starter Jeremy Randolph allowed just one run on six hits in five innings of work.
LeFevers went 2-for-2 with two RBIs and one run scored for the Norse, who recorded nine hits and left five base runners stranded. Head finished 3-for-4 from the plate, while Mercurio collected a two-hit day for NKU as well.
Korson (1-2) took the loss for the Norse after 1.1 innings of relief. He gave up one run on two hits to go with three walks and three strikeouts. Starter
Matt Jefferson surrendered three runs on seven hits in 6.2 innings on the mound, and he struck out four batters and did not walk one.
NKU returns to the Bill Aker Baseball Complex on Thursday to close out a series of three games over a four-day span. The Norse welcome Miami Hamilton for a 4 p.m. first pitch. Links to live stats and John Asalon's audio broadcast are available at NKUNorse.com. Fans can also follow @NKUNorseGameDay on Twitter for game updates as well.
