May 14, 2004
Box Score
OXFORD, Ohio - With the Mid-American Conference baseball season nearing the end of the regular schedule, the Miami (30-17, 11-6 MAC) baseball team picked up a big win on Friday afternoon, 9-6, in the first game of its three-game set with Northern Illinois (27-23, 11-8 MAC). The RedHawks are chasing the Central Michigan Chippewas for the regular-season championship who had their game postponed against Buffalo.
A Northern Illinois error by the second basemen in the bottom of the first inning helped the RedHawks take an early 2-0 lead. The error, a hit batsmen and a single by junior Brian Canada (Fishers, Ind./Hamilton Southeastern) juiced the bases for Jon Franzese (Barrington, Ill./Barrington) who delivered with an RBI single to left field. NIU leftfielder Jake Blair gunned down the second Miami runner at the plate for the second out of the frame. Blair recorded a second assist in the inning, but not before sophomore Geoff Orr (Orland Park, Ill./Carl Sandburg) plated another Miami run.
The RedHawks took a 3-0 lead in the bottom of the third inning on a sacrifice fly by junior John Slone (Cincinnati, Ohio/St. Xavier). Two more runs in the third frame upped the RedHawks lead to five runs, 5-0. Orr had an RBI double in the frame and came home on a sacrifice fly by freshman Brandon Hillier (Hinsdale, Ill./Hinsdale Central).
NIU's Rob Marconi was responsible for the Huskies first run of the contest when he turned on a 2-2 pitch and launched it over the leftfield wall. The home run was Marconi's team-leading 12th of the season and cut the gap to 5-1.
Miami scored for the fourth straight inning on a two-run home run by junior Mike Ferris (Cincinnati, Ohio/Colerain) in the fourth stanza. Another error extended the inning for the RedHawks when Slone reached on a throwing error, which allowed Ferris to step to the plate and hit his 21st home run of the season.
Orr whalloped his eighth home run of the season in the fifth inning to give the Red and White an 8-1 lead.
The Huskies worked freshman Keith Weiser (Hamilton, Ohio/Talawanda) in the top of the sixth frame for a run to cut the lead to six runs, 8-2. Scott Simon ripped an RBI double down the leftfield line to score Greg Larsen from third. The run, however, was unearned to Weiser's line due to a throwing error on Larsen's leadoff at-bat.
Slone and Ferris worked together in the bottom of the sixth inning to up Miami's lead to 9-2. Slone reached on infield single to the shortstop to extend his hitting streak to a MAC-best 24 games, and then advanced to second on a wild pitch. Ferris did the rest with an RBI single up the middle to score Slone from second base.
Two runs in the top of the seventh inning helped the Huskies dent the Miami lead a little bit to 9-4. Jeremy Busch singled to centerfield to score one run for the Huskies and then came around to score himself on a double by Larsen.
Weiser, and senior reliever Chad Reineke (Defiance, Ohio/Ayersville), came upon some hard times in the eighth inning when the Huskies scored one run on zero hits and two errors. The run was scored by Mike Hochhauser on a misplayed ground ball by the Miami shortstop.
Northern Illinois added one more run in the ninth inning but still came up short as Weiser collected his eight win of the season.
The RedHawks play the second game of the series with NIU tomorrow afternoon at 1 p.m.
