SENATOBIA – Northwest split an afternoon doubleheader with Lake Land on Friday at Jim Miles Field, picking up a 5-4 win in the opener behind five solid innings from freshman
Peyton Plumlee before falling 9-7 in the nightcap despite a season-high 15 hits.
Northwest moved to 7-1 on the season while Lake Land moved to 1-3.
(Game 1) Plumlee left with a 5-0 lead in the sixth with two on and no outs before a late Laker rally pulled the final within 5-4. The MSU commit picked up his first collegiate win after scattering two runs on one hit with seven strikeouts and four walks.
Cody Cooper's three-run home run to left, his second of the year, broke a scoreless tie in the fourth.
Ryan Skalnik and
Spencer Cayten both singled to leadoff the inning before Cooper's one-out long ball. The Rangers extended their lead to 5-0 in the fifth after Cayten's RBI-single and a throwing error.
Two walks, two errors on failed pickoff attempts and a balk led to four Laker runs in the sixth, chasing Plumlee and reliever
Austin Towles. Tony Kwon delivered an RBI-groundout and Angel Lopez added a two-run single in the frame that finally ended on a flyout to right off
Jonathan Lindsey.
Koby Busby made his first appearance of the season in the seventh, allowing one walk before getting a strikeout to close out his first save of the year and seventh of his career.
(Game 2) Northwest scratched across single runs in each of the first three frames on RBI-singles from Skalnik,
Jake McPhail and
David Herrington before several Ranger miscues led to seven unanswered runs for the visiting Lakers.
Lake Land tied the game at 3-3 in the fourth, using a two-run homer from Kwon and RBI-single from Luis Dominguez.
A disastrous fifth inning for Northwest allowed four Laker runs to score, with three wild pitches, a balk and error giving Lake Land a 7-3 lead.
A single run in the fifth and three more in the sixth pulled the Rangers within a run, 8-7, before a passed ball pushed the Lake Land lead back to 9-7 in the final frame. Northwest scored its runs off RBIs from
LeeMarcus Boyd, Skalnik and Cayten in the sixth but a base running mistake denied the Rangers a chance to possibly tie the game.
Northwest got the tying run to the plate in the bottom of the seventh before Enrique Perez closed the door for Lake Land.
The Rangers pounded out a season-high 15 hits, led by Boyd with three. Six Rangers had multiple hits in the loss.
Weather permitting, Northwest will travel to Jackson State (Tenn.) on Tuesday, March 1 for a noon doubleheader.
