Lancers Travel to Orange City to Take on Red Raiders

Game Time... Northwestern faces Mt. Marty at 5:00 p.m. in Orange City.

Scouting Mt. Marty... Mt. Marty (15-19, 7-9 GPAC) enters with a team batting average of .286 and a team ERA of 5.99.  The Lancers have seven players in the .280-.330 range, led by Justin Siemonsma at .326.  Seniors Rand Thygeson (.319, 10 doubles), Billy McDonald (.284, 25 runs) and Matt Kemp (.288) along with Mike Hammonds (.313) and Dean Hansen (.452) hit at the top of Mt. Marty's lineup.  Hansen was this past week's GPAC Player of the Week after going 6 for 11.

Left hander Trey Krier is the staff ace, going 5-3 with a 2.68 ERA in five starts.  Thygeson has provided Mt. Marty with some options on the mound, they have used him as a closer and a starter.  He has collected two saves and is 2-2 with a 3.48 ERA in a team high eight starts.  Thygeson leads the team with 48 strikeouts in 41.1 innings pitched.  Brady Diercks (0-3, 8.63), Nick Huston (2-1, 4.75), and Trey Novotny (3-4, 10.36) have also made four or more starts for coach Andy Bernatow.  

Red Raider Notes...  Northwestern had 30+ hits for the second doubleheader in a row in a sweep of Midland Lutheran (15-13, 10-1) on Wednesday.  Northwestern used 16 hits in game one to score 15 runs defeating the Warriors 15-13.  Northwestern looked in control through five and a half innings, owning a 10-2 lead but Midland took advantage of five Raider walks and two Raider errors, scoring eight times behind three hits to tie the score at 10-10 after six.  Neither team scored in the seventh and Northwestern plated five in the eighth and was able to limit Midland to three in the home half, securing the 15-13 win.  Game two saw more Northwestern hitting and a good pitching performance from Mike Zoellner.  Northwestern had 14 hits in game two, including three by Jake Jansen and Brad Payne (Payne had three in game one).  Zoellner recorded seven strike outs and walked four in seven innings and allowed only four hits in picking up his third win and moving to 3-1 overall.

For the season, Northwestern has a team batting average of .324.  Jake Jansen (.410), Grant Wall (.410), Brad Payne (.404), and Joe Heitritter (.398) lead the Raiders in average while Kent Drickey (.354), Codie Zeutenhorst (.354), Austin Malone (.318), and Justin Boersma (.317) are also above .300.  Wall leads the team with 41 hits, 34 runs scored, and 13 doubles.  Jansen leads the team with four home runs.  Zeutenhorst has a team best 28 RBI.

Mihai Burlea, the GPAC Pitcher of the Week, leads the Raiders with a 6-2 record and is 4-0 in the GPAC.  Joe Grady and Trevor Kuiper each have four wins and Mike Zoellner is 3-1 with a team best 2.57 ERA.  Grady paces the Raider staff with four saves.  Northwestern is third in the GPAC in team ERA with a 4.75 ERA.   

Up Next... Northwestern concludes the home weekend on the 19th as Nebraska Wesleyan comes to Orange City.  Saturday's doubleheader versus Nebraska Wesleyan will start at 1:00 p.m.

GPAC Standings