NATCHITOCHES – A year ago, extra innings were kind to the Northwestern State baseball team in its season opener.
Unfortunately for the Demons, they were unable to re-create that magic Friday night in the 2017 season opener.
Cincinnati scratched out an unearned run in the 10
th inning and held on for a 3-2 win in 10 innings in front of a crowd of 1,478 at Brown-Stroud Field, the fifth-largest gathering in the stadium and largest for a non-LSU game.
"I thought we played well," first-year coach
Bobby Barbier said. "I thought we competed. Every guy who touched the mound threw the ball well. Their guy (Andrew Zellner) is really good. He had a two-something ERA last year. He was an all-conference guy.
"Sometimes you run into those guys. I told the team, if we play that way every day, if we compete that way, we're going to have more wins than losses."
Zellner and Northwestern State right-hander
Nathan Jones locked up in a typical Friday-night duel after each allowed early runs.
Connor McVey's two-out solo home run in the first put Cincinnati ahead but
Regan Kaufman led off the Demons second with the first triple of his career and scored two batters later on a
Matthew Alford sacrifice fly.
Jones, making his first career start, struck out a career-best five in five innings, allowing one run on two hits. Zellner worked 6 1-3 innings, allowing five hits and a run while striking out six.
Zellner was effectively wild, walking one batter and hitting three others as neither offense could find a clutch hit until the seventh inning when Cincinnati's Cam Alldred snapped the 1-all tie with a two-out RBI double off
Tim Winders.
Northwestern State appeared to solve Cincinnati reliever A.J. Kullman (1-0) in the eighth as
David Fry drew a leadoff walk and scored from second on
Kelsey Richard's one-out single.
Two batters later, pinch hitter
Cade Jones lined a single to center field. Treg Haberkorn's throw home nabbed Richard to keep the game tied at 2.
"There were a couple of different plays in the game that we didn't make and they made," Barbier said. "(Haberkorn) threw out the guy at home with two outs. He's a really good player, has a really good arm. We send them every time with two outs. We can look at one or two plays, but I'm really excited with how we played."
Winders ran into trouble in the ninth when the first two Bearcats reached before
Kyle Swanson (0-1) entered and struck out two Cincinnati hitters and induced a pop out to escape the threat.
Swanson was not as fortunate in the 10
th as a leadoff single and a sacrifice bunt put R.J. Thompson on second base with one out. An infield single and the lone Demons error of the night allowed Thompson to score the eventual winning run.
Jones, Swanson and Winders combined to scatter nine hits and strike out 10 batters, giving NSU its first double-figure strikeout game since the 2015 season.
"I thought all three of those guys threw extremely well," Barbier said. "If we pitch it like that, we'll be just fine."
McVey had three of Cincinnati's nine hits while
Spencer Goodwin went 2-for-4 to lead NSU's seven-hit attack.
The series continues at 3:30 p.m. Saturday afternoon. Northwestern State will send junior right-hander
John Carter Sanner to the mound in his Demons debut. He will oppose Cincinnati left-hander J.T. Perez (6-5, 2.97).
Cincinnati 3, Northwestern State 2, 10 innings
UC 100 000 100 1 – 3 9 1
NSU 010 000 001 0 – 2 7 1
W – A.J. Kullman (1-0). L –
Kyle Swanson (0-1). 2B – UC, Cam Alldred. NSU, Kwanstan Adkins. 3B – NSU,
Regan Kaufman. HR – UC, Connor McVey (1). Highlights: UC, McVey 3-5, HR, RBI; Alldred 2B, RBI. NSU,
Spencer Goodwin 2-4; Kaufman 3B; Adkins 2B.
Records: Cincinnati 1-0; Northwestern State 0-1.
