Long Day Leads to Another Split For St. Norbert, Beloit

From Sports Information Director, April 24, 2009 | Baseball
by Dan Lukes, dan.lukes@snc.edu, (920) 403-4077

BELOIT - St. Norbert College rallied for a doubleheader split with Beloit College in a pair of key Midwest Conference North Division games at The Ballpark at Strong Stadium.

The Green Knights had to rally to claim a 14-11 win in the nightcap after dropping the opener to the Buccaneers 12-4. St. Norbert is 15-9 overall and 6-2 in the MWC North, while Beloit is 22-7, 9-5.

Beloit held a 4-1 lead after three innings in game two before St. Norbert exploded for eight runs in the top of the fourth. Brandon Hintz had an RBI single to plate Kyle Johnsen, while Brett Birkholz followed with a run-scoring single of his own to score Matt Hannon. Jared Yost then smacked a three-run home run. Tony Jandron singled and Cory Fuller tripled for a 7-4 lead. Garrick Fisher later doubled in Fuller and Johnsen drive home Fisher to cap off the rally. St. Norbert pounded out nine hits in the inning.

Hintz hit a solo home run in the fifth for a 10-4 lead but Beloit answered with three runs in the fifth and one in the sixth to cut it to 10-8. Neither team scored in the seventh and eighth before St. Norbert scored four needed insurance runs in the ninth. Yost had a two-run single, Birkholz scored on a wild pitch and after a dropped foul ball extended the inning, Fuller drove in Yost for a 14-8 lead. Beloit would scored three times in the bottom of the ninth but did not get the tying run to the plate.

St. Norbert roped 19 hits in game two, with Johnsen and Hintz both going 4-for-5. Yost was 3-for-3 with five runs batted in, while Birkholz, Jandron, Fuller and Fisher all had two hits apiece. Fuller had three runs batted in.

Jordan Vater picked up the win for St. Norbert, going 4 2/3 innings of relief. Vater allowed five hits with two walks and one strikeout along with four runs to improve to 1-2.

In the opener, St. Norbert held a 2-0 lead after three innings and trailed 5-4 after six inning, but Beloit scored in each of its last five at bats to pull away. Vater had an RBI triple and Fisher an RBI groundout in the second, and Jandron and Fuller had RBI doubles in the sixth for St. Norbert's production.

Fuller was 2-for-2 while Vater was 2-for-4, as the Green Knights had seven hits in game one. Jandron took the loss, working 6 2/3 innings while allowing 11 hits, nine runs, four walks and 10 strikeouts.