Quint Heady finished 3-for-5 to lead the Northern Kentucky University baseball team, but the Norse fell to the University of Kentucky, 5-1, in their final road game of the 2015 season.
Trey Ganns went 2-for-4 with a double for NKU, which fell to 17-31 overall. The Norse recorded nine hits on the night and left 11 runners on base. Jake Shaw (2-4) took the loss, allowing five runs on 11 hits in 7.1 innings of work. He walked three batters and struck out one.
The NKU offense threatened early, sparked by a lead off infield single from Quint Heady in the first inning. Cole Bauml drew a walk before a David Head sacrifice bunt advanced both runners a base. Logan Spurlin was walked with two outs to load the bases, but a line out ended the Norse half without bringing a run home.
Kentucky, which improved to 28-23 on the year, took at 2-0 lead in the first inning after back-to-back ground-out RBIs from Ka’ai Tom and JaVon Shelby brought Kyle Barrett and Evan White home.
After three scoreless innings, Dorian Hairston singled through the left side in the bottom of the fifth, and White scored for a 3-0 Wildcats advantage before NKU put a run on the scoreboard in the top of the eighth. Trey Ganns doubled to right-center field and was replaced by Taylor Sears in the base path. Kyle Colletta sent a two-out double left, scoring Sears to cut the Norse deficit to 3-1.
Kentucky answered with two runs in the bottom of the inning for the final margin of the game.
White went 2-for-3 with two runs scored, two walks and one stolen base to lead the Wildcats offense, while Storm Wilson finished 2-for-4 with one run and Greg Fettes drove in two runs with his one hit.
Brad Schaenzer (1-0) earned the victory after pitching three scoreless innings of relief with four strikeouts. Starter Andrew Nelson scattered two hits, walked two and struck out three batters.
NKU wraps up the 2015 season with a three-game Atlantic Sun Conference series against Lipscomb at the Bill Aker Baseball Complex, starting with a 3 p.m. contest on Thursday.
Friday’s first pitch is set for 1 p.m., and Saturday’s Senior Day will begin at noon. Links to live stats for each contest are available at nku.statbroadcast.com, and John Asalon’s audio broadcast for Thursday and Friday can be found at NKUNorse.com. Saturday will be featured on ASun.TV.
From NKU Athletics