The Northern Kentucky University baseball team welcomes Kennesaw State to the Bill Aker Baseball Complex for a three-game Atlantic Sun Conference series this weekend.
First pitch on Friday is set for 3 p.m. Saturday’s Strike Out Cancer contest is scheduled for a 1 p.m. start time, and Sunday’s finale, which features Bark in the Park, will begin at noon.
Links to live stats are available at nku.statbroadcast.com, and the ASun.TV broadcast for each game can be found at NKUNorse.com. Fans can also follow @NKUNorseGameDay on Twitter for updates as the matchups progress as well.
NKU improved to 10-18 overall with a 5-2 victory over Eastern Kentucky on Wednesday in Highland Heights. Quint Heady led the Norse offense, going 3-for-5 from the plate, and he drove in one run and scored once. Cole Bauml recorded his team-leading seventh home run of the season, a two-run blast over the left-center field wall, and scored twice.
Jake Shaw allowed just two runs on nine hits in eight-plus innings of work for his first victory of the season for the Norse. He recorded two strikeouts and walked four. Kevin Herren pitched one inning of relief with one hit and one strikeout for his first save of the year.
NKU’s Cole Bauml would continue to lead the nation in doubles with 22 if the Norse were eligible to be included in the NCAA statistics as a reclassifying institution. He tops the conference and ranks third nationally with a .781 slugging percentage, and he is second in the Atlantic Sun and lands among the top 50 among NCAA players with a .386 batting average.
Bauml has recorded 89 total bases, which is second-best in the conference and 10th-highest in the country. His.470 on-base on-base percentage is second in the Atlantic Sun, and he has hit a team-leading seven home runs to rank third in the league and 46th nationally.
The senior from Muenster, Saskatchewan, is also chasing down a pair of single-season records. Bauml needs just four more doubles to tie Jason Cisper, who recorded 26 during the 2010 season. He needs just one more double to earn a spot in the Atlantic Sun’s top 25 list and 12 more two-baggers to tie the conference record of 34, which was set by Stetson’s Frank Corr in 2000.
NKU will Strike Out Cancer on Saturday with the American Cancer Society accepting donations, and Strike Out Cancer t-shirts, Coaches vs. Cancer t-shirts and NKU Pink Ribbon grocery bags will be available with a donation to ACS.
Breast cancer survivor Shirley Brown will be in attendance to throw out the game’s first pitch.
Sunday marks NKU’s annual Bark in the Park event, and the Boone County Adoption Waggin will be on site at the Bill Aker Baseball Complex accepting donations and featuring adoptable pets. NKU branded pet items, such as water/food bowls, collars and a dog clean-up bag dispenser will also be available with a donation. Fans can also “Buy a Dog, Save a Dog” with the purchase of a hot dog for $1. All money from the hot dog sales will benefit the Boone County Adoption Waggin.
UP NEXT: NKU hosts Maryville (Tennessee) College on Wednesday, April 15, at 3 p.m. to replace Tuesday’s contest that the Norse lost to Kentucky State due to a scheduling conflict. Links to live stats and John Asalon’s audio broadcast are available at NKUNorse.com.
Norse softball looks to bounce back after sweep
The Northern Kentucky University softball team opens a three-game Atlantic Sun Conference series this weekend against Kennesaw State. The actions begins with a doubleheader on Saturday and concludes with a single game on Sunday. First pitch each day from the Frank Ignatius Grein Softball Field is scheduled for noon.
North Florida had to rally for wins in the final at bats in NKU’s most recent series. In last Friday’s doubleheader, the Norse dropped a 3-1 decision in the opener and an 11-10 slugfest to close out the weekend. The Osprey pitching was up to the task on Saturday in a 6-0 win to complete the sweep. NKU’s scheduled midweek doubleheader against Morehead State was postponed until April 21 due to weather.
Dani Devlin continues her hot hitting as she now stands third in the league in batting average at .413. Devlin went 8-for-13 (.533) with a pair of home runs and a double to pace the Norse offense to a 1-4 week. Devlin continues to rank among the Atlantic Sun’s top hitters, also ranking third in on-base percentage (.471) and second in slugging (.853). Her nine home runs land fifth in the conference and her 15 extra-base hits is sixth.
Allie Conner matched a feat not accomplished in six years with two triples against North Florida on Friday. She became the first Norse batter to triple twice in a game since Rose Broderick did it back during the 2009 season against Bellarmine. On the week, Conner had three triples and now ranks second in the A-Sun in the category and increased her batting average by more than 70 points with six hits in 14 at bats.
Last Wednesday, Ashlynn Roberts became the first NKU freshman to pitch a shutout since the 2012 season. Roberts held Austin Peay to just three hits and struck out a season-high five batters in a 5-0 win for the Norse. The shutout was the first for a Norse freshman since Alex Caudill’s 8-0 blanking of Cedarville on April 19, 2012, one of three shutouts for Caudill that season. On the week, Roberts was 1-1 with a 3.60 ERA, scattering 11 hits and six runs over 11.2 innings in three appearances.
UP NEXT: The Norse head to Indianapolis for a midweek doubleheader against IUPUI on Tuesday. NKU will compete against the Jaguars on April 14 to open a 12-game road trip. The first pitch will take place at 3 p.m. at the IUPUI Softball Complex. NKU’s next home game will take place Tuesday, April 28, against Miami (Ohio) in a doubleheader at the Frank Ignatius Grein Softball Field.
From NKU Athletics