After sweeping last week’s home series—and winning six straight—Seattle University baseball cooled off during their weekend on the road.
The Redhawks (29-18, 16-5 WAC) have now dropped three of their last four games. After an extra innings loss to Oregon State, the team headed south to take on New Mexico State (27-20, 15-6 WAC).
The Aggies have been chasing Seattle U in the standings and made up some ground by taking two out of three games. However, the Redhawks maintain a one game lead heading into the final stretch of games.
Despite their great season, the Redhawks have struggled on the road posting a 9-13 record away from Bannerwood Park.
In a high scoring affair, Seattle U made it out of the first game of the series with a 10-9 win in the 10th inning.
They jumped out to an early 5-1 lead in the first inning, but watched that lead disappear over the course of the next few innings. The scoring continued back and forth until the Redhawks entered the ninth down one run. Junior Brock Carpenter made sure that didn’t last long as he launched a leadoff home run to tie the game 9-9. Carpenter had a big day with three hits and four RBIs.
Sophomore Dalton Hurd came up with his third hit in the 10th inning to double in the game winning run. Junior Connor Moore picked up the win going 2.1 scoreless innings to end the game.
In the second game the Redhawks took an 8-5 loss. Sophomore Nick Meservey got the start, but struggled giving up six runs in four innings of work.
This allowed the Aggies to take a 6-1 lead through four, but coach Donny Harrel has put together a strong team that doesn’t give up and their bats came alive in the fifth inning. Freshman Chase Ridder launched a two run homerun before Carpenter singled in a run. Ridder’s day wasn’t done as he drove in freshman Jeffrey Morgan in the next inning to cut the lead to 6-5. Ridder almost single handedly brought the team back.
But that was all the Redhawks could muster as they dropped the game.
In the rubber match, sophomore Janson Junk got the start, but struggled against the Aggies’ bats. He made it through four innings giving up five runs.
New Mexico state once again jumped out to an early lead that the Redhawks couldn’t recover from. The Aggies scored two in the second inning before Seattle U cut that in half on senior Sheldon Stober’s RBI double.
The Aggies slowly but surely put runs on the board and were up 7-2 after six. Ridder once again tried to play hero with a two run homer in the eighth but it wasn’t enough as they ultimately dropped the game 7-5.
So, where does this leave Seattle U? With seven games left before the WAC Tournament there is little time to waste. It is important for the team to hold their spot at the top of
the conference.
While this weekend’s series against the Aggies didn’t help their standings, winning game one was key to keeping their lead.
The Redhawks return to Bannerwood Park this weekend for their final home series against Northern Colorado.
Willy may be reached at [email protected]
