FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Contact: Clark Teuscher, Sports Information Director, 630-637-5302
Box Score
TERRE HAUTE, Ind. (Mar. 20, 2011) - The North Central College baseball team put itself in position to pick up a win on Sunday at Rose-Hulman Institute of Technology, but a late surge by the hosts turned the tables and wound up resulting in a 9-7 loss for the Cardinals at Art Nehf Field.
North Central (2-3) took advantage of a pair of Engineer errors and plated four runs in the first inning. Matt Burke was hit by a pitch with the bases loaded to bring the first run home, Matt Abraham came through with a sacrifice fly, and Burke and Kevin Hennessy later scored on an error as the Cardinals took a commanding 4-0 lead.
The Cardinals scored again with the help of two Rose-Hulman errors in the third inning, as Zac Pacanowski reached first base and advanced to second on a pair of miscues. Abraham doubled to extend the lead to 5-0. Pacanowski tacked on a RBI of his own in the fifth, as Dan Scott singled, stole second, went to third on a single by Peter Romanello and scored on Pacanowski's sacrifice bunt.
Rose-Hulman (10-4) broke up the shutout with a two-out run in the bottom of the fifth, then scored runs on four straight at-bats in a five-run sixth inning to tie the game at 6-6. In the eighth, the Engineers got two singles, three walks and a hit batter with two outs and put together a three-run rally to pull ahead for the first time, 9-6.
Hennessy delivered his first home run of the season with two outs in the ninth inning, but the Cardinals were unable to complete the comeback.
Hennessy went 2 for 4 at the plate, while Abraham's sacrifice fly tied him with Bill Judge '93 for the North Central career record in that category. Brad Crackel was the Cardinals' starting pitcher, allowing three earned runs on six hits in 5 1/3 innings while striking out three and walking four. Relief pitcher Tim Riggenbach took the loss (0-1).
The Cardinals are set to open the home portion of their schedule on Wednesday, hosting Crown College (Minn.) in a double header at noon on Wednesday.
