Five-Run Fifth Lifts Flashes Past Northern Illinois
5/23/2007 12:00:00 AM | Baseball
Ypsilanti, Mich. - Kent State battled back from a 3-0 deficit to defeat Northern Illinois 7-3 in the opening round of the 2007 MAC Tournament Wednesday afternoon (May 23) at Oestrike Stadium. The Golden Flashes rallied for five runs on seven hits in the fifth and held on for the win behind a solid pitching performance from Dominique Rodgers.
Rodgers tossed the final 3.1 innings without allowing a run to earn his first save of the year. Chris Carpenter threw 5.2 innings to earn the victory and improve to 4-0.
KSU will take on Miami in a winner's bracket game Thursday. The RedHawks defeated Central Michigan in Wednesday's opening game.
A second-inning hit-by-pitch and two walks by Carpenter loaded the bases for the Huskies, who took advantage of a Chris Tremblay error to score their first run. Carpenter got the next two batters to fly out, limiting the dangerous situation to just one run.
The Huskies added a pair of runs in the third with a two-out single up the middle from Matt Behren. After NIU starter Trevor Feeney retired the first nine batters he faced, everything seemed to be going the Huskies' way.
However, the Flashes got on the board in the fourth thanks to a pair of Husky errors. Tremblay led off the fourth with a single up the middle. Doug Sanders then reached on a catcher's interference moving Tremblay to second. Tremblay later scored an error by the shortstop, cutting the lead to 3-1.
Jason Patton ripped a double off the right field wall to start a fifth inning rally. Brad Winter and Will Vazquez followed with back-to-back singles through the left side. Two batters later, Tremblay put a single of his own through the left side. With two outs on the board, the knockout punch of the inning came from Andrew Davis, who smashed a triple off the top of the center field wall to score Sanders. Anthony Gallas capped off the scoring with a slow grounder to short and beat out the throw to first by a step.
Traling 6-3, the Huskies put runners on second and third with two outs in the sixth, before Rodgers took the mound. Rodgers got behind in the count to his hitter (3-1), but Vazquez picked off Behren at third base. The senior catcher caught Behren sleeping with a rocket throw to third.
The Flashes got some insurance from Patton, who lined a home run over the center field wall in the eighth. It was Patton's fourth longball of the year. Rodgers finished off the Huskies without allowing a hit in the ninth.
Vazquez smacked a game-high three hits, scored once and drove in one. Patton, Davis and Tremblay each tallied two hits and Patton scored twice. Carpenter struck out three in the victory and Rodgers fanned two in the save. Davis is now eight hits away from tying Miami's Clark Mace (316 hits) as the MAC's all-tme hit leader.
KSU has now outscored opponents 54-19 in the fifth inning this season. The Golden Flashes have won 13 of their last 14 games and clinched their ninth consecutive 30-win season.
Kent State (30-24) will take on rival Miami with a 4 p.m. start at Oestrike Stadium.
