ALVA , Oklahoma- Northwestern Oklahoma State Baseball returned to action Monday afternoon to close out their opening three game series against Minnesota-Crookston. Northwestern would take the final game of the series with an 8-4 victory over the Golden Eagles. Rangers used a three run third inning along with scoring in six straight innings to take the victory.
This is the first win for the Rangers in the 2022 season as they improve to 1-2 on the year, dropping the Golden Eagles to 2-1 on the year.
Northwestern was led on offense by Blake Hoffman driving home three runs on a third inning three run home run giving the Rangers the lead in which they would never lose. Every Northwestern hitter finished with at least one hit as six had at least two. Yugo Hamakawa led the way with three in the afternoon. Hayden Priest hit his first home run of the season driving in two runs on the day. Fred Buckson, Dylan Norsen and Brandon Holdren each drove in one run.
The Red-and-Black threw two pitchers in the win as Emilio Lovato went 7IP allowing two earned runs striking out seven in a quality start. Edwin Colon followed him with a two inning save striking out four Golden Eagle hitters.
Minnesota Crookston got things started early in this game with three runs in the first. Hjelle would hit a solo home run before a couple of Rangers' miscues allowed two more runs to score behind three Northwestern errors.
In the bottom half of the inning the Rangers would start their comeback slowly. Shaughn Kelly got things started with a single up the middle. Hoffman moved him to third with a single to right field. Holdren drove Kelly in with a ground out to first on a hard line drive for a fielder's choice as the Rangers trailed 3-1 after the first.
Lovato settled in, retiring the Golden Eagles in order in the top half of the inning. Hamakawa led off with a single in the second and would later come around to score on a Priest sacrifice fly, cutting the deficit back to one at 3-2 through two innings.
After a single in the third Lovato worked around it with two strikeout in the inning before the Rangers once again would score. In the bottom of the third inning, Haruki Kitazaki would lead things off with a leadoff double. After a Kelly single Hoffman stepped up with runners on first and third nobody out as he blasted one to right field for a three run home run. Northwestern took a 5-3 lead which they would protect the rest of the way.
After Lovato retired the side in order, Priest would extend the Northwestern lead in the fifth to 6-3 on a solo home run. Minnesota would answer back with one run in the fifth inning cutting the Rangers lead to 6-4 but Northwestern wasted no time in the sixth. After a Norsen double, followed by a Hamakawa single, Buckson would drive in the seventh run with a single.
Northwestern would score their final run of the game in the sixth inning on a solo home run by Norsen giving the Rangers an 8-4 lead over the Golden Eagles.
Colon relieved Lovato in the eighth inning as he closed out a two inning save for the Rangers. He would work around two base runners through the 8th before striking out the side. He added one more strike out in the ninth before he closed out the 8-4 win for the Rangers.
Northwestern will continue their homestand to start the season with a home game against Newman on Wednesday February 9th with first pitch scheduled for 2:00PM. They will then play host to the NWOSU festival over the weekend from Friday through Sunday for a three game series.
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