ASHLAND, Wis. – Whenever the Yellowjacket baseball team has taken on Northland College in the past eight years, the teams have either met at the NBC Spartan Sports Complex or the Woodside Sports Complex for Upper Midwest Athletic Conference (UMAC) action. Reason being, LumberJack Field is a natural surface, which ultimately means Northland hits the road for most of its baseball games.
Since Mother Nature decided to take it easy on the Midwest this year, LumberJack Field was available, making this the first time in eight years the Yellowjackets have played a baseball game in Ashland.
The home field advantage played true for Northland, scoring three runs in the bottom of the second inning, one in the seventh and another three in the eighth inning to defeat UWS 7-1 in the third and final game of the UMAC series.
Game Notes
- The LumberJacks put up three runs in the bottom of the second inning off starter Miles Kay (Albertville, Minn./St. Michael-Albertville), beginning with singles from Matt Simpson and Anthony Boyle. Hunter Wicklund would then reach on an error before a sacrifice fly would plate Simpson for the first run of the ball game.
- A Yellowjacket error caused another run to score before a balk would plate the third run of the inning.
- UWS would threaten in the third, as Brian O'Dwyer (Maple Grove, Minn./Maple Grove Senior), Cole Ondrus (Esko, Minn./Esko) and Nick Fredrikson (Minneapolis, Minn./St. Anthony Village) singled in consecutive fashion, but the 'Jackets couldn't force a run across.
- Adam Jensen (Brainerd, Minn./Brainerd) came into relieve Kay, and he limited the LumberJacks to just one run in 4.1 innings.
- Northland's one run off Jensen came in the bottom of the seventh inning, as Tyler Murphy doubled before Peyton Solberg followed that up with a double of his own.
- Speaking of Solberg, he relieved LumberJacks starter Kazdion Mount and pitched three innings of shoutout baseball.
- The 'Jackets committed two errors in the bottom of the eighth, prompting Northland to score three additional runs.
- The only Yellowjacket to finish with two hits was Ondrus, going 2-3 with a walk in the contest.
- UWS ended the game with six errors, the highest mark since the 2019 season.
The Yellowjackets (14-12, 9-3 UMAC) are back in action Saturday as they face Minnesota Morris. First pitch is set for 7 p.m. at Wade Stadium in Duluth, Minn.
