MEQUON – St. Norbert College is making its first appearance in the Northern Athletics Collegiate Conference Baseball Tournament a memorable one with a pair of wins on the opening day of the tournament at Kapco Park.
The Green Knights opened with a 7-4 win over Edgewood College and then ground out a pulsating 7-6 10-inning triumph over NACC champion and top-seeding Aurora University.
St. Norbert advanced to the winners' bracket final at 7 p.m. Friday against Milwaukee School of Engineering.
The Green Knights trailed Aurora 5-3 heading to the top of the ninth inning.
Keagan McCarthy laced a triple to open the frame, followed by a
Nick Volz double. After an out, Volz advanced to third on a wild pitch and was singled home by
Adam Cootway to tie the game 5-5. Following an infield error,
Luke Follmann's single brought Cootway around for a 6-5 lead. Aurora tied the game on a solo home run by Jett Wedekind with one out in the bottom of the ninth.
St. Norbert got an opening in the top of the tenth when
Alex Perez advanced to second on a one-out throwing error. Following an out and an intentional walk,
Isaac Gerhardt was hit by a pitch to load the bases. Cootway then singled to shortstop to bring home pinch-runner
Nolan Lemke. The Spartans were then retired in order in the bottom of the tenth.
Aurora scored a run in the first to take a 1-0 lead, but St. Norbert got two runs in the third inning when Follmann was hit by a pitch with the bases loaded and Cootway scoring on a wild pitch. The Green Knights added a run in the fifth inning when
Sebastien Dubois' grounder brought in Volz for a 3-1 lead. Aurora would score three runs in the six and then added one run in the eighth. The Spartans had a 5-3 lead with runners on second and third with no outs in the eighth, but
Luke Steebs worked out of the jam with two strikeouts and a flyout.
Cootway was 4-for-5 with two runs scored and two runs batted in. Volz was 3-for-5 with three runs scored and two doubles. Follmann was 3-for-4 with two runs batted in. Steebs got the win, working three relief innings allowing two hits with one walk and three strikeouts.
St. Norbert played from behind early when Edgewood scored three times in the top of the first inning on three hits. The Green Knights were able to tie the game in the bottom of the second inning, scoring three times on no hits and three Edgewood errors. Follmann and Perez had RBI grounders.
The Green Knights added a pair of runs in the third inning, with Cootway scoring on a wild pitch and
Caden Uhlenbrauck driving in Dubois on a single. St. Norbert scored twice more in the fourth, with Volz leading off the inning with a home run and a Follmann single plating Cootway, who had doubled.
Trevor Reinhardt settled down after the first inning, allowing just one run and four hits the rest of the way in a complete-game effort. Reinhardt allowed just seven hits with one walk and eight strikeouts.
Uhlenbrauck was 2-for-4 with a double for the only multi-hit game for St. Norbert, which had six hits.
