First Posted: 2/14/2015
LAURINBURG, N.C. — The University of Northwestern Ohio baseball team is continuing to improve on the young season, and Friday, the Racers experienced a pair of successes they had not yet seen this season. UNOH played errorless baseball defensively, and that coupled with a big offensive day led to a series opening win for the first time in 2015.
UNOH (4-5) scored 10 runs over a four inning span early in their game at St. Andrews University (N.C.) opening a 10-2 lead on its way to a 12-5 win over the Knights (3-5).
After the game UNOH head coach Kory Hartman was pleased with the progress of his ballclub. “Ryan Petrangelo gave us another quality start,” he stated, “and that allowed us to play ahead and aggressively for nine innings today.”
St. Andrews got a leadoff single in the bottom of the first frame and manufactured it into the first run of the ballgame, but the Racers responded in a big way.
Jhonniel Alvarez picked up an RBI single in the top of the second inning that set off a string of four straight innings in which the Racers scored. Brandon Collins gave UNOH the lead with an RBI groundout in the third, with the Racers adding two more runs later in the inning to take a 4-1 lead. Collins doubled home two more runs in the fourth to push the Racers’ lead to 6-1 before St. Andrews tallied a run in the bottom of the fourth to close the gap to four runs.
In the fifth, UNOH broke the game open, scoring four times to take a 10-2 lead. Zyler Cosby belted a 1-out triple to right center that Rafael Lozada and Austin Lenhardt. Kyle Fisher followed Cosby with an RBI double, and later in the frame, he stole home as a part of a double-steal that pushed the Racers into double-digits on the scoreboard for the fourth time in nine games.
“I thought our situational hitting was outstanding today,” Hartman noted, “with a number of extra-base hits with runners in scoring position.”
Cosby picked up his third RBI of the afternoon with a run-scoring single in the sixth, and UNOH added another run on a double-play ball in the eighth.
On the Hill, Petrangelo (2-0) threw six innings and allowed three runs, two earned, and eight hits. He walked one, while striking out eight Knights in earning the win. Demetreus Ingram (1-1) took the loss for St. Andrews, allowing six runs on six hits in three and one-third innings.
Offensively, Alvarez and Cosby each had three hits.
