March 5, 2002

Box Score

HIGHLAND HEIGHTS, Ky. - Two grand slams and three big innings helped the Miami baseball team to a four-run, 19-15 10-inning victory at Northern Kentucky. A five-run, three-hit 10th inning gave the RedHawks their second win of the season, improving to 2-1 on the road.

NKU jumped out to an early 4-0 lead with two runs in the second inning, and one in both the third and fourth innings. RedHawk first-year hurler Brad Bachman (Harrison, Ohio/Harrison) was touched up for seven hits in the first four frames of his first career start.

The RedHawks rallied for their starter in the top half of the fifth inning by scoring eight runs and batting through the order, starting with junior George Stegmiller (Columbus, Ohio/Upper Arlington) drawing a base on balls. Junior David Cook (Columbus, Ohio/St. Francis DeSales) followed with a double to center field, advancing Stegmiller to third. Stegmiller crossed the plate when junior Zach Schmidt (Cincinnati, Ohio/McNicholas) hit a sacrifice fly. One batter later Cook scored for Miami off a junior Mike Galloway (St. Thomas, Ontario/Central Michigan) single, and the stage was set when junior Michael Carlin (Pittsburgh, Pa./Mt. Lebanon) singled to load the bases for his classmate Andi Scheidt (Cincinnati, Ohio/LaSalle). Scheidt knocked his first career grand slam to knot the game at 6-6. Miami went on to score two more runs before running out of outs in the frame.

Six runs in the bottom half of the fifth inning put the advantage back in Northern Kentucky's favor, 10-8. A triple from Rahschulte off freshman Mike Moljewski (Shelby Twp., Mich./De La Salle Collegiate) and sacrifice hit brought the Northern Kentucky lead to 11-8 after six innings of action.

Another Red and White rally was due in the seventh inning as Miami faced a three-run deficit with nine outs remaining. Rally is just what the RedHawks did in the seventh frame, as they proceeded to score six runs, complete with their second grand slam of the contest. Swinging the big stick this time for Miami was Carlin, hitting his second four-bagger of the season and first career grand salami.

The excitement was not over as NKU responded with three runs of its own in the bottom half of the seventh stanza. Senior Russ Bayer (Naperville, Ill./Naperville North), the eventual winner of the contest for Miami, allowed Northern Kentucky to tie up the contest 14-14. After getting roughed up a little in the seventh, the RedHawk southpaw settled down to blank NKU over the final two innings of regulation.

Facing its first extra-inning contest of the young season, Miami showed its true colors in the 10th by rallying for five runs. Freshman backstop John Slone (Cincinnati, Ohio/St. Xavier) lead off the inning with a single, and subsequently advanced to second base on a Stegmiller sacrifice bunt. The strategic play worked for the RedHawks as Cook wacked an RBI single to score Slone. After Schmidt struck out to record the second out of the frame, Galloway reached on an error and another big inning was well on its way. Back-to-back walks to Carlin and junior Ryan Edginton (Chester Springs, Pa./Arizona State) scored the RedHawks second run of the inning. A wild pitch scored Galloway and a two-run single from Scheidt brought Miami to its final tally of 19 for the game.

With a four-run lead in the bottom of the 10th inning, senior Billy Kieninger (Xenia, Ohio/Xenia) came on in relief of Bayer to close out the RedHawks second win of the season. After allowing a walk and a stolen base, Kieninger allowed his only run of the inning on a one-hit single from Osterkamp.

Combining to score 34 runs with Northern Kentucky, the most since an 27-9 victory at home against Akron on May 6, 2001, the Miami baseball team improves to 2-1 overall. The RedHawks have one more contest this week at Cincinnati on March 7, before loading up for their spring break trip to Florida this weekend.

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