April 17, 2009
EVANSTON, IL – – Northwestern scored the game-winning run in the bottom of the seventh to clip the Iowa baseball team, 4-3, Friday afternoon at Rocky Miller Park.
Pacing the Hawkeyes today were Ryan Durant and Sean Flanagan. Durant was a perfect 2-for-2, with two walks and an RBI single. Flanagan, who started his first career game today, went 1-for-3, hitting a game-tying homer to left field in the seventh.
Nick Brown, who hails from nearby Warrenville, IL, pitched well again for the Hawkeyes, but got the loss. The Hawkeye freshman threw six and a third, allowing four runs and striking out five. Northwestern’s Joe Muraski earned the win.
Northwestern (10-23, 2-7) jumped out to an early 1-0 advantage in the first inning on a Tony Vercelli sacrifice fly to right center.
The Hawkeyes got on the board in the top of the fourth, scoring two to take a 2-1 lead. Durant, who was moved to the clean-up spot, singled to left, scoring Kevin Hoef to tie the game. The hit extended Durant’s hitting streak to 10 games. One batter later, Wes Freie collected his team-best 30th RBI with a sacrifice fly to center, scoring Justin Toole to put the visitors up 2-1.
The Wildcats retook the lead with four hits, three of which were doubles in the bottom of the frame. With two outs, Northwestern rallied with consecutive RBI hits by Kenneth Avila and Quentin Williams to put the home team ahead 3-2 through four innings.
The Black and Gold evened the contest at 3-3 in the top of the seventh with a two-out home run to left by Flanagan. The big fly was the first of Flanagan’s career.
Northwestern scored the game-winning run in the bottom of the seventh with a bases loaded fielders choice.
Iowa (11-22, 2-8) had the game-tying run at second base in the top of the eighth, but a Freie line drive headed for the outfield was snagged by Wildcat third baseman Chris Lashmet.
Iowa and Northwestern will continue its three-game weekend series tomorrow at 1 p.m. at Rocky Miller Park.
GAME SUMMARYIOWA 000 200 100 -- 3 5 3N'WESTRN 100 200 10X -- 4 8 2
WP - Muraski (3-5)LP - Brown (2-3)SV - Livermore (2)