The Lion’s baseball team celebrates their sweep of the Northwestern University Wildcats.
The sweep over the weekend was the second of the year for the Lions.
The Lion’s Roar / Tamara Alexander
The Lions baseball team took home the three game series against the Northwestern University Wildcats from Chicago, placing them back on a winning streak after losing against Louisiana State University on Thursday night.
The Lions baseball team played the Wildcats at Pat Kenelly Diamond at Alumni Field Friday defeating with a score of 10-5 and the double header score Saturday 6-4 and 4-3 leaving a record of 8-4.
“I was proud to see the guys bounce back. I felt like after the tough loss to LSU it was very important for us to get our early lead and we did,” said head coach Matt Riser.
Ryan Byers led off the first with a single up the middle, moved to second base on a wild pitch by Northwestern starting pitcher Brandon Magallones (0-1) and advanced to third base when the second baseman mishandled a ground ball off the bat of Julian Service. Kevin Carr singled to open up the third, but was removed on Carson Crites’ fielder’s choice grounder to short. Crites stole second before Brett Hoffman drew a one-out walk. Left fielder Webb Bobo drove in Crites with a single to left center. With two outs, catcher Nico Cuccia reached on an infield single to load the bases and Byers singled to right, plating Hoffman and Bobo. Southeastern would add four more runs in the fourth, but the Wildcats answered with a four spot of their own in the top of the fifth. The Lions picked up their final run in the seventh when Daniel Midyett tripled in Service with two outs. Northwestern answered with a run in its half of the eighth to complete the scoring. Tate Scioneaux (1-1) earned the win, allowing four runs in seven innings of work.
“The biggest thing is Tate Scioneaux being able to give us seven innings even though he had the one inning there in the fifth, he gave the four runs. He did a good job giving us those two innings, which were used to save the bullpen,” said Riser.
Magallones suffered the loss for the Wildcats.
“We did a good job at pitching early on. We did a good job early on both offensively and defensively. It was big for us to get back on the wining side of things. I felt like last week the loss to Tulane we kind of had a hangover from the Friday game against UTA. It was good to see us get back on the winning side of things tonight,” said Riser.
With the expectation of rain, Sunday’s game was moved to Saturday forty-five minutes after the 2 p.m. game making Saturday’s game a double header. Game one, the Lions collected for a pair of runs in the eighth inning, breaking open a tie game. Game two, the Wildcats scored three unearned runs in the first and the Lions spent the rest of the game trying to draw even taking the game away in the bottom of the ninth inning. Byers smacked a 2-2 pitch into center field to drive in Menard and Seward with the tying and winning runs.
The Lions defeated the Wildcats in both games, bringing the series home. Teamwork and dedication is what it took to pull the sweep off according to Scioneaux.
“This team is closer than any team I played on,” said Scioneaux. “To be successful, you got to have teamwork. There is no I in team.”
The Lions will continue their five-game home stand Tuesday at Pat Kenelly Diamond at Alumni Field, hosting Alcorn State at 6 p.m.
For more information or a schedule of Lions baseball, visit lionsports.net.