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By Tom Ramstetter, NKU Sports Information FLORENCE, Ky. --- Junior catcher Larry Pempek laced a two-out single to right-center field on a 1-2 count in the bottom of the 10th inning to drive in Jack Ambrose, giving the Northern Kentucky University baseball team a 4-3 win over GLVC rival Kentucky Wesleyan Sunday evening in the second game of a doubleheader at Champion Window Field. The Norse salvaged a split in the twin-bill after being shut out by the Panthers, 4-0, in the first game. NKU took three of four in the series, having swept Wesleyan in a doubleheader on Saturday. Ambrose started the bottom of the 10th with a walk and advanced to second when heavy hitter Kevin Dusold put down a sacrifice bunt. Pat Muth nearly ended the game there, but his drive to left was hauled in at the wall, bringing up Pempek with two away. Matt Winterhalter (1-1) earned the win, pitching two scoreless innings in relief. Nick Crady (0-1) took the loss for the Panthers. The Panthers scored two runs in the eighth inning to erase a 3-1 NKU lead. Jeff Bohlen fielded Jeremy Kuester’s grounder to third with one out and runners on second and third, spotted Panthers right fielder Mike Witten charging hard for the plate, had a thought about throwing home, and then threw the ball away at first. Kuester wound up on second and Michael Graves advanced to third before scoring the tying run on Logan Neal’s fielder’s choice. Brad Johnson, starting in Pempek’s place at catcher, drove in Ambrose with the game’s first run in the second inning with his first double of the year. Aaron Mentz’s fielder’s choice in the third plated Jon Back for a 2-0 Norse lead. The Panthers got on the board in the fourth inning when Josh Vincent singled through the right side to drive in Chris Smith. Johnson struck again for NKU in the sixth with an RBI-single that drove in Muth. Game 2 was played around a 38-minute rain delay. In the first game, Josh Schultze (2-1) threw a one-hit shutout, striking out four and walking only two. Panthers center fielder Tim Wimsatt scored the first run on a sacrifice fly off Witten’s bat. Wimsatt singled to lead off the game, and then advanced on a wild pitch by Dave Middendorf (2-3) and a sacrifice bunt by Jon Troutman. Wesleyan held the 1-0 lead until the top of the sixth, when the Panthers scored two runs on three bunts and two NKU errors. Matt Martin led off the inning with a single down the left-field line and Brandon Pendergraft sacrificed Martin to second. Wimsatt reached on a throwing error by second baseman Brett Hofmann and Martin went to third. Troutman followed with a suicide-squeeze bunt that brought Martin home. Wimsatt went to third and Troutman went to second on a throwing error by Bohlen at third base after fielding the squeeze play. A bunt-single by Witten then plated Wimsatt. The Panthers added an unearned run in the seventh when Martin’s sacrifice fly to right field brought home Smith. Middendorf gave up only four hits, but the Norse made four errors in the game and added three more in the nightcap. NKU (12-13, 8-3 GLVC) will host UC Clermont Tuesday at 4 p.m. at Champion Window Field, and will not face the Panthers (7-22, 2-10) for the rest of the regular season. |
