The Seattle University Baseball team swept the Northern Colorado Bears (NCU), clinching a first round bye and a number one seed heading into the WAC tournament.
A strong offensive performance combined with stellar pitching propelled the Redhawks past the NCU.
It started Thursday, when Seattle U (29-25, 19-8 WAC) was able to pull off the come-from-behind win. After five innings, the Bears lead Seattle by a score of 9-7. An offensive outburst in the top half of the sixth gave the Redhawks the lead, and they never looked back.
Colin Pederson drew a leadoff walk and was able to score thanks to a double by Landon Cray. Senior Brian Olson drew a one out walk, and Sheldon Stober followed with an RBI double scoring Cray—advancing Olson to third.
Brock Carpenter drove Olson in on a groundout, and Griffen Andreychuk followed with a single of his own—scoring Stober. Grant Newton kept things alive with a single that moved Andreychuk to third. Andreychuck would score on a wild pitch before the five run inning ended.
Seattle added two more runs in the ninth, and went on to win by a final score of 14-9.
Friday was a much lower-scoring game. Seattle led by a score of 4-1 heading into the bottom of the seventh inning. A three-run seventh tied the game for Northern Colorado (16-30, 12-15 WAC), but a ninth inning run sealed the deal for the Redhawks.
In the series finale Saturday, freshman lefty Tarik Skubal picked up right where he left off last weekend. Skubal allowed just two hits and two walks, as the Redhawks went on to win 10-0 in seven innings.
“I have a hard time thinking that Tarik is not a leading candidate for WAC Freshman of the Year after that effort today,” said Seattle U Head Coach Donnie Harrel.
Complimenting Skubal’s stellar performance, the Redhawk’s offense exploded for 10 runs last Sunday. Landon Cray and Dalton Hurd each went 3-for-4 with two RBI, and Andreychuk went 3-for-4 with 3 RBI Sunday.
The Seattle U offense as a whole scored a total of 29 runs on 41 hits over the course of the weekend.
Hurd finishes the regular season leading the WAC in stolen bases with 20. Hurd only attempted 21 steals on the season, a .952 average. Teammate Sheldon Stober finished second with 19 stolen bases.
Senior Skyler Genger finishes the regular season as the leading strike-out leader with 113, 35 more than the next closest player. Skubal finishes tied for third with 67. Genger finished fifth in the WAC in ERA with a 2.92, and Skubal finished eight at 3.26 runs per game.
The Redhawks go into the WAC tournament as the No. 1 seed and are riding a four game win streak. Their first game is scheduled for Thursday, May 21 at 7 p.m. Their
opponent is TBA.
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