BELLEVUE, Wash. – (Apr. 7) The Redhawks batted through the order on their way to a five-run third inning in the Western Athletic Conference series final against Northern Colorado Saturday at Bannerwood Park. But the Bears would respond with a big fourth inning and Seattle University baseball would settle for a 2-1 series win as UNC took game-three, 7-6.
Nick Meservey pitched a two-strikeout, scoreless first inning for the Redhawks before giving way to Dawson Day in the second. Day issued a pair of walks, but also drew two fly outs and a strikeout to close out a scoreless second.
The Bears (19-14, 3-6 WAC) would take a 1-0 lead in the third on a sacrifice fly.
The Redhawks (18-10, 6-3 WAC) then put together their second two-out rally in as many games. Austin Lively started things off with a triple down the right field line. Curtis Perrin draw a walk to put runners on the corner before Lively would score on a wild pitch.
Perrin went on to steal second before Jake Cosgrove drove him home with a single up the middle. Sean Sutton followed with a single through the right side and Dalton Hurd singled to center to load the bases. Justin Mazzone laced a double deep down the left field line to send Sutton and Hurd home and make it 5-1 Redhawks and chase starter Keenan Lum from the game.
Reliever Connor Leedholm ended the rally be inducing Chase Wells into a ground out.
"It was good to get Nick out there again and just like yesterday we have two outs, nobody on and send nine hitters to the plate and score five runs," said Head Coach Donny Harrel. "We had a lot of momentum going and then we just don't throw enough strikes and gave them way too many opportunities."
The tide then turned to the Bears' favor as the visitor posted six runs in the top of the fourth to reclaim a lead they would never relinquish. The sloppy inning included a pair of hit batters, three walks, one wild pitch and three UNC hits.
After both teams posted zeros in the fifth through eighth innings, the Redhawks tired for one more rally in the ninth. With the bases loaded and one out Lively's sacrifice fly to left field trimmed the UNC lead to one, 7-6. But Perrin would strike out looking for the final out of the game.
"Offensively, we go five innings with no runs which is dissapointing, but I'm happy we put ourselves in a situation to win or at least tie it there at the end," said Harrel. "It was aood way to finish after a tough stretch of innings. We won the series which is our goal every weekend, but we definitely feel like we let this one get away."
Leedholm earned the win for the Bears while reliever Austin Hansen took the loss for Seattle U.
The Redhawks continue their 17-game homestand on Tuesday when they host Air Force at 5 p.m. at Bannerwood Field.