MEQUON, Wisconsin – Senior Jimmy Carrington had five hits to lead the MSOE baseball team to an emphatic 14-7 victory over Concordia Wisconsin in the opening game of the 2018 NACC Championship Thursday morning at Kapco Park.
The third-seeded Raiders (24-17) scored nine times over the second and third innings, all with two outs, to jump out to a nine-run advantage over the No. 6 Falcons (22-18) and advance in the winner's bracket to a showdown with No. 2 Marian later in the day.
Carrington finished 5-for-6 with two doubles, three RBIs, and four runs scored in the game. Senior Garrett Willems and Nick Gross each went 3-for-6 with three RBIs with Gross hitting his team-leading sixth home run of the season.
Freshman Caleb Willert (6-2) got the start and worked through 6.0 innings, allowing three earned runs. He did not post a clean inning in the start but effectively worked through traffic to keep CUW off the board until the offense struck for nine runs. Junior Sam Crawford came on to throw 3.0 innings of effective relief to collect the save.
A six-run second inning got MSOE off and running in the game. A hit batter loaded the bases with two outs before senior Ryan Newman drove in the game's first run when he was hit by a pitch. Carrington followed with a two-run single but came around to score, along with the runner ahead of him, as the ball rolled past the left fielder to the wall. Willems then doubles and freshman Julian Sonn walked to keep it going. Gross plated both runs with a double to the corner in left field.
The Raiders went back to work in the third inning, striking for another three runs. This time, a trio of walks loaded the bases with two outs. Carrington, Willems, and Sonn then followed with three-straight run-scoring singles to make it 9-0.
Concordia Wisconsin pulled back an unearned run in the fourth inning and another run in the fifth to pull within seven runs. The Red & White re-established the nine-run cushion with two more runs in its half of the fifth, with Sonn driving in a run with a double and Gross following with an RBI single.
The offense for CUW continued to add some runs late in the game, as the host institution scored five more times over the sixth, seventh, and eighth innings. However, the Raiders' offense did not let the Falcons back in the game, as Gross hit a home run in the seventh inning and Willems supplied a two-run single in the eighth to ensure a comeback would not be in the cards.
Newman extended his hitting streak to 22-straight games and freshman Justin Bickman walked twice and was hit by a pitch to reach base safely in his 22nd-straight game.
