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| NKU TO MEET SIUE IN NCAA FIRST ROUND - May 16, 2006 |
Norse travel to
Allendale, Mich., for NCAA II North Central Regional this Thursday |
HIGHLAND HEIGHTS, Ky. - The Northern Kentucky University baseball team will meet Southern Illinois at Edwardsville at 1 p.m. Thursday in the first round of the NCAA Division II North Central Regional at Allendale, Mich. NKU enters the NCAA Tournament with a 42-18-1 record and is the No. 2 seed. The Norse captured the Great Lakes Valley Conference championship last Sunday with a 3-2 win over Quincy at Sauget, Ill. Grand Valley State (44-8) is the No. 1 seed and host for the double-elimination North Central Regional, which will run through Sunday. The top-seeded Lakers will meet sixth-seeded Rockhurst in the opening game Thursday. Quincy will play Ashland in the other first-round game Thursday. All NKU games can be heard live on the Internet. Go to the NKU Athletics Web site or click here to listen. THE NKU/SIUE SERIES IN 2006: NKU and SIUE (38-17-1) met five times this season, and the Norse were 3-1-1 against the Cougars. In their first meeting on March 4 at Florence, Ky., Kyle Jones tossed a no-hitter against NKU during a 5-0 SIUE victory. Jones, the GLVC Pitcher of the Year, struck out six batters and walked two as the Cougars knocked off the Norse in the Norse’s inaugural game at Champion Window Field. Last week, NKU eliminated SIUE from the GLVC Tournament with a 7-5 victory in 11 innings. COACH OF THE YEAR: NKU’s Todd Asalon was named GLVC Coach of the Year in 2006. Asalon also earned the GLVC Coach of the Year honor in 2002. ALL GLVC: Four NKU players - catcher Conor McGeehan, shortstop Kory Lonergan, starting pitcher Josh Bruns and closer Steve Thomas - were named All-GLVC first team. Junior pitcher Matt Marksbury and senior third baseman Matt Jones were selected to the second team. CLOSE THE DOOR: Steve Thomas, a senior closer and a graduate of Elder High School in Cincinnati, leads the GLVC with 11 saves and owns a 5-0 record. Earlier this season, Thomas set an NKU record by pitching 28 consecutive scoreless innings. He also has a 1.05 earned run average going into the NCAA Tournament.
BEHIND THE PLATE: NKU senior catcher Conor McGeehan is batting .297 with three home runs and 28 runs batted in. McGeehan, a graduate of Lebanon High School, also has 12 doubles and 16 stolen bases. ABSOLUTE GEM: NKU junior left-hander Brian Beltz pitched 8 2/3 innings of scoreless baseball during a 1-0 win against Quincy in an elimination game of the GLVC Tournament last Saturday night. Beltz also struck out nine batters before giving way to Steve Thomas. Beltz, a graduate of Louisville Ballard High School, upped his record to 6-4. He scattered four hits and walked only one batter. CLUTCH HIT: Kory Lonergan's two-out single in the bottom of the ninth inning drove in Josh Moulton with the winning run last Sunday to give NKU the GLVC championship with a 3-2 victory over Quincy. Lonergan, a graduate of Dixie Heights High School, lined a single to left field to plate Moulton from second base. NKU won its third GLVC Tournament title in the last five years. QUIET LEADER: NKU senior third baseman Matt Jones tied an NKU single-game record with five hits against SIUE last week. Jones, a graduate of Lloyd High School, leads NKU with a .324 batting average. STEALING THE SHOW: NKU enters the NCAA Tournament with 114 stolen bases this season. Norse freshman outfielder Kenny Wilson leads the way with 27 steals, while Kory Lonergan has 23 thefts. NKU sophomore second baseman Jon Back has added 16 steals. NCAA
II Tournament CLICK HERE FOR TOURNAMENT INFORMATION, DIRECTIONS AND TICKETS |
