Bluejays sweep Northwestern in early-season baseball games
Tabor baseball team off to 6-4 start after two wins over NW Red Raiders
By RYAN RICHTER
Sports writer
A good start in baseball is nothing new for the Bluejays. The trick has been to keep going.
Tabor (6-4) picked up a pair of victories Saturday in Hillsboro, keeping the Northwestern (Iowa) Red Raiders winless on the season by respective 5-2 and 5-3 scores.
The Red Raiders had numerous chances in both games to notch wins as Tabor struggled to find its stroke.
They issued the Bluejays nine free passes with six walks and three hit batters.
Josh Craig broke up the tie in the opener's bottom of the second with a two-run single and the aid of two Raider errors.
Tabor pushed the lead to 3-0 in the bottom of the fourth with one of its three hits, a Tanner Monhollon single.
The Raiders made it a 3-1 game in the top of the fifth against Bluejay starter Casey Hillman, who gave up an RBI single to Austin Sunderman.
Hillman went five innings and allowed four hits while punching out six batters for the victory.
Northwestern pulled to 3-2 in the top half of the sixth with Josh Letourneau surrendering a solo home run to Michael Janssen.
Janssen was 2-for-3 the first game and 5-of-6 for the day.
Tabor put the game away in the bottom half of the sixth with Justin Wilczak going deep to center-field for a two-run homer.
Layne Frick slammed the door on the Raiders in the top half of the seventh despite allowing the Raiders to get the tying run to the plate after beaning a batter. Frick escaped the damage for the save.
Tabor's hitting didn't get much better in the nightcap against less than imposing Raider starter Paul Menscher.
The Bluejays couldn't get to Menscher through three innings, though.
It didn't take Northwestern long to rough up Andy Womack, who got the start on the mound.
A run scoring double by Dietrich Jache and a Janssen single had Womack working out of a 2-0 hole after a half inning.
Finally in the fourth inning, the Bluejays figured out how to rile up Menscher with Jeremy Ball getting Tabor's first hit.
Brian Kimsey tied the game up, 2-2, scoring Tyson Bauerle and Ball with a two-run double.
Kimsey finished the nightcap 2-for-3 with a game-high three RBIs.
Hillman put the Bluejays over the hill for good in the bottom of the fifth, knocking Menscher out after he gave up an RBI single.
Womack dodged a bullet in the top of the sixth letting the go-ahead run aboard and loading the bases up with one out.
He eluded potential disaster as a double play ended the threat.
Kimsey's heroics weren't through just yet. He decked a solo home run in the bottom of the sixth to double the Raiders over before Casey Cooper scored the final run on a sacrifice fly.
Womack went six innings and yielded eight hits to the Raiders before Scott Wolf had the chance to close it up in the top of the seventh.
Wolf ran into trouble, too, giving up two hits to set the Raiders up with the tying run at the plate.
All he allowed was a sacrifice bunt for the 5-3 final for the save and got the win for Womack.
The Bluejays picked up six hits while Northwestern had 10.
Tabor travels today to Olathe to take on the MidAmerica Nazarene Pioneers at 1 p.m.
The Bluejays return home Saturday to tackle Concordia University also in a 1 p.m. start.
