Contact: Nicholas Osterloo, Assistant Sports Information Director, 630-637-5324
MARIETTA, Ohio. (Mar. 7, 2025) – In a tale of two halves, the North Central College baseball team took an early lead, but succumbed to a late rally from Muskingum University to fall 11-9 on Friday afternoon at Pioneer Park.
Leading off the game in the best way possible, Parker Wyatt launched a home run over the left-field fence. The Cardinals loaded the bases as John Michael Scumaci, Jackson Bland and Austin Wienke all reached base. Peyton Burgh scored Scumaci on an RBI groundout before Caleb Coberley plated Bland and Wienke to give North Central a 4-0 advantage.
Cardinal starter Elijah Hammond kept the Muskies scoreless in the first two frames. In the top of the third, Wienke found the right-center field gap for an RBI triple to plate Bland from first after he drew a one-out walk. Wienke scored on a wild pitch to extend the North Central lead to six.
Following another scoreless inning from Hammond, Wyatt hit a triple to left center and came around to score on a wild pitch, adding to the Cardinal lead.
Muskingum broke through in the bottom of the fourth, scoring two runs on three hits to cut their deficit to five, 7-2. After a scoreless half inning from the Cardinal offense, the Muskies tacked on two more runs on hit hits and two walks.
North Central responded as Coberley hit a leadoff single up the middle. He stole second and scored on a Justin Lang RBI single to push the lead to four, 8-4. The Muskies took advantage of a few Cardinal miscues as they scored three runs on just one hit in the bottom of the eighth to cut the North Central lead to one, 8-7.
In the top of the eighth, Burgh doubled to left field before advancing to third on a balk. An RBI single from Coberley tacked on some breathing room for North Central, who took a 9-7 lead.
Muskingum took their first lead of the contest in the eighth inning, scoring four runs on three hits and three walks to take an 11-9 advantage into the last inning. Yuhki Yamada led off with a single, but the Muskies prevailed to earn an 11-9 win.
Coberley led all batters with three hits while recording three runs batted in. Wyatt and Wienke each scored twice with two hits and an RBI. Bland also scored twice as he extended his streak of reaching base safely to 36 straight games. AJ Kutcher suffered his first loss of the season, allowing four runs on four hits in 2.1 innings pitched.
North Central continues its trip to Marietta tomorrow, facing Hanover College for the first time in school history at 1 p.m. (ET).
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