 Headean (1-4) allowed
three earned runs on seven hits in a career-best seven innings of
work, while striking out three batters, to pick up his first win of
the season and the first in his career at ISU. Jeremy Rhoades
allowed just two hits over the final two innings of work to finish
out the victory for the Redbirds.
After both teams failed to score in the first inning, NIU took a
1-0 lead in the top of the second inning when Jeff Zimmerman scored
on an RBI single to left field off the bat of Joe Battaglia. The
Huskies' lead did not last long, as the Redbirds answered with four
runs on three hits and took advantage of a costly throwing error to
take a 4-1 lead.
Zac Johnson led off the inning with a walk and then advanced to
second on a single up the middle by Kyle Stanton. Daniel Dwyer then
laid down a sacrifice bunt that was fielded by NIU third baseman
Connor Duckhorn. Duckhorn attempted to throw out Johnson sliding
into third, but he overthrew the shortstop covering the bag, and
Johnson came home to score as Stanton advanced to third and Dwyer
moved up to second base.
Brett Kay then followed with a double to center field to score
both Stanton and Dwyer, making the score 3-1. Kay then advanced to
third base on a wild pitch and scored on an RBI single by Mike
Hollenbeck to extend the lead to 4-1 after two innings of play. NIU
got two of those runs back in the top of the inning, thanks to four
hits in the inning, to cut the ISU lead to 4-3.
The Redbirds extended their lead to 7-3 in the bottom of the
fourth inning with three runs on two hits. Dwyer and Kay led off the
inning with back-to-back singles, and Hollenbeck loaded the bases
when he reached on a throwing error as he attempted to lay down a
sacrifice bunt. Sean Beesley then walked to force Dwyer home for the
first run of the inning.
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With the bases loaded and no outs, Kay scored from third when
Chad Hinshaw reached first on a fielder's choice as Beesley was
forced out at second for the first out of the inning. Hinshaw
then stole second base to give the Redbirds runners on second
and third with one out, before Hollenbeck scored on a sacrifice
fly to center field off the bat of Paul DeJong for the final run
of the inning.
The Redbirds extended their lead to 9-3 with runs from Beesley
and Hinshaw in the eighth inning. Hollenbeck led off for the inning,
grounding out to second base, before Beesley reached first with the
help of a fielding error by the shortstop. Hinshaw then walked,
setting up a single by DeJong through the left side that advanced
Hinshaw to third and allowed Beesley to score the first run of the
inning. The Redbirds added their second run when Hinshaw scored from
third as Eric Aguilera reached on a fielding error.
Kay led the way for the Redbirds, going 2 for 4 with two runs
scored and two driven in. DeJong also drove in a pair for the
Redbirds, and Hollenbeck added two hits and drove in a run.
The Redbirds return to action Wednesday against MacMurray at 3
p.m. at Duffy Bass Field.
___
Box score
[Text from
news release received from
Illinois State University]
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