Northern Kentucky University’s baseball team was streaky Sunday.
In the best possible way.
The Norse rode a six-run seventh inning and held off a late Wright State rally to claim Sunday’s 9-5 win at Bill Aker Baseball Complex at Friendship Field.
Two streaks against the Raiders ended: NKU’s consecutive losses Friday and Saturday and 21 straight painful games since April 7, 2019.
“As a team, we were looking for that spark,” Norse catcher Jayden Wakeham said. “We had a couple opportunities we couldn’t cash in … Last time we beat them was four years ago, my freshman year.”
Norse head coach Dizzy Peyton didn’t say anything different before Sunday’s game.
“We just always work the same process,” Peyton said. “Nothing changes whether we win or lose. We’re always going to work our same process and try to get quality at-bats, quality innings. String enough of those together, then we win a lot of games.
About five minutes after NKU’s victory song, Carlyle Frasier’s version of “Rattlin’ Bog,” serenaded folks with a tale of a hole, tree, branch, limb, nest, bird, egg, feather, worm, hair, louse, tick and rash in “the bog down in the valley-o,” Wakeham recalled his bases-loaded double off Wright State’s Garret Simpson.
Wakeham’s contribution was the main reason NKU improved to 14-12 and 5-4 in the Horizon League and is tied for second with Purdue Fort Wayne. (Wright State fell to 15-12 and 7-2.) His three-run double off Chris Gallagher in the seventh helped send 11 Norse batters to the plate.
“It was a changeup that (Simpson) kind of left a little on the inside, a little bit up, and I was able to get the barrel to it and keep it fair,” Wakeham said.
Wakeham (2 for 5 and a run scored) was not the only reason. Right fielder Treyvin Moss was 2 for 4 with two runs scored; shortstop Noah Fisher was 2 for 3 with a double.
Wright State struggled against NKU starter Kaden Echeman both at the plate and on the bases. After retiring the Raiders in order in the first inning, he picked off first baseman Jay Luikart, who led the second with a walk.
Echeman, who struck out five and walked two over six innings (he threw 91 pitches with 54 for strikes), did not allow another Raider on base until he hit Dane Thomas two outs into the third.
NKU opened the scoring in the third inning when Manny Vorhees’ single-plated left fielder Brandon Tucker, who had singled and reached second on a Luke Arnold error.
Wright State converted two miscues by NKU shortstop Noah Fisher into a 2-1 Raider lead in the sixth.
Alex Theis relieved Wright State starter Luke Stofel in the sixth. He retired the Norse in order and induced weak popups from Tucker and Adam Schneider to begin the seventh.
Then, disaster – and not just because of Wakeham’s double.
After Moss singled to center, Fisher, Vorhees, Liam McFadden-Ackman and Peyton Layne walked, scoring Moss and Fisher.
Tucker’s liner ricocheted off Arnold into center field, scoring Wakeham.
“We just couldn’t find the strike zone,” Wright State head coach Alex Sogard said. “That kind of bit us.”
In the eighth, Fisher doubled home Moss, and McFadden-Ackman’s single scored Fisher.
Wright State scored three times in the ninth. Luikart doubled and scored on Arnold’s single, Boston Smith came home when Casey Maniglia plunked Thomas, and Arnold scored on Patrick Fultz’s walk.
NKU heads to Youngstown State for a three-game series beginning Thursday. The Norse’s next home game is April 11 against Dayton.
When Maniglia struck out Luikart to send the 132 in the stands and around the field home happy, Moss couldn’t wait to hear “Rattlin’ Bog.”
“It’s definitely one of the songs that we picked as a team,” Moss said. “When we hear it, which is after a W, it’s always a good song. I can say it’s up there with my favorite songs; when we’re hearin’ it, it’s after a W.”
WRIGHT STATE 000 002 003 – 5 5 0
NORTHERN KENTUCKY 001 000 62X – 9 9 2
Stofel, Theis (6), Gallagher (7), Simpson (7), Valentine (7), Hartzell (8), Roder (8) and Sass; Echeman, Werrman (7), Lopez (8), Maniglia (9) and Wakeham. WP-Werrmann (4-1). LP-Theis (1-3). 2B-Wakeham (NKU), Fisher (NKU), Luikart (WSU).