HIGHLAND HEIGHTS, Ky. – The Northern Kentucky University baseball team (0-13, 0-0 HL) fell to Xavier (4-7, 0-0 Big East), 24-15, in its first home game of 2020 at Bill Aker Baseball Complex on Wednesday. Sam Czabala (W, 1-0) gets the win for the Musketeers and Tyler Ollier (L, 0-1) had the loss.
AT THE PLATE
- Andrew Bacon plated seven runs on the afternoon in a 3-for-5, two-homer performance. The junior also had a walk to his name.
- Noah Fisher also sent a pair of pitches out of the park, drove in three and finished 2-for-6.
- Jackson Haas picked up the second home-run of his career and a triple in a dazzling 4-for-5 outing.
- Griffin Doersching went 3-for-6, which included a pair of doubles and RBIs.
- Treyvin Moss (1-for-5), Collin Luty (1-for-4) and Jake Murray (1-for-4) also had hits in the game.
ON THE MOUND
- Noah Richardson had the spot start in this one, giving up the opening run in the first.
- After the first inning, Jake Pease went two-thirds of an inning, allowing five runs. Tyler Keith finished off the second, giving up three runs.
- Ollier pitched for two innings, allowing one earned-run. He had two hits, four walks and a trio of strikeouts.
- TJ Graves allowed a pair of runs in an inning of work.
- Kurt Lange threw for two frames, giving up a run on three hits while fanning three batters.
- Jared Flueck and Tyler Murphy pitched an inning each to close out the game, yielding three and five runs, respectively.
KEY MOMENTS
- After Xavier homered in the top half of the first, Northern Kentucky fired off for a seven-run half-inning. The first score came through back-to-back doubles by Murray and Bacon. Doersching then brought Bacon home with his first home run of the year.
- The Doersching bomb was followed by the first Northern Kentucky triple of the season as Haas smacked one down the right-field line. A Luty single and another homer, this time by Fisher, cleaned things up for the sixth run.
- With the bases now empty, Hedges was hit by a pitch before both Wakeham and Murray walked. In his second at-bat of the inning, Bacon ran the count into his favor and generated an RBI walk.
- The run-fest was far from over as Xavier piled on eight in the top of the second to retake the lead at 9-7.
- The fourth saw Xavier get another four runs and Northern Kentucky add one through a bases-loaded hit-by-pitch by Hedges. Doersching represented the Norse score after leading off with a double in the inning.
- The Norse and the Musketeers each had a pair of runs in the fifth frame. Moss lead the Norse half with a walk and Bacon smacked a home run to left-center to make it a 15-10 game.
- Fisher showed no mercy in the sixth, batting one past the left-field wall for his second home-run of the afternoon. Hedges and Murray then reached base after being hit by a pitch and a walk, respectively. Bacon wrapped up the inning with a second home-run of his own, sending a no-doubter to left field.
- Each side had one plate in the seventh as Haas got in on the home-run parade for NKU.
- Xavier scored eight unanswered runs to end the game with three coming in the eighth and five being in the final frame.
UP NEXT
- NKU takes a short trip up to play three games against Dayton this weekend. Game one will begin at 3:00 p.m. on Friday.