By MATT PIKE
The Northwest Missouri State baseball team saw the Augustana Vikings rally in the eighth inning, and score four runs in the 10th as the Bearcats dropped a 12-10 extra-inning affair in the NCAA Central Region contest.
Augustana got to Northwest starter Ben Haug for three hits and two runs in the first inning. Troy Berg's two-run, two-out triple to right-center, driving in Brandon Weigel and Ragan Pinnow, gave the Vikings a 2-0 advantage. The Bearcats answered in the bottom half with a two-out rally of their own. Jordi Ventura jump-started the offense with a ground-rule double to right-center. Wilmer Jimenez rocketed a single to left to put runners on the corners and then designated hitter John Connors delivered a wind-aided drive to the left field wall that gave him a double, driving in Ventura and Jimenez to tie the game.
Northwest stormed out to start the second inning as the first five Bearcat batters reached base. Chester Brooks came through with an RBI-single to left to score Parker Griffith for the go ahead run, who had reached on an infield single to third. Jeremiah Cabuyaban drew a bases loaded walk to extend the lead still with no outs. Later in the inning, Jimenez hit a sacrifice fly to right to score Brooks to give the Bearcats a 5-2 advantage at the end of the inning.
But the Vikings rallied and fought back again when Kobe Eikmeier drilled a two-out, three-run homer, driving in Pannow and Troy Berg, to level the score at 5-5 in the top of the third. Northwest retook the lead in the bottom half though as Cabuyaban's walked again with the bases loaded, scoring Griffith for a 6-5 Bearcats lead at the end of three innings.
After Northwest added an insurance run in the fourth inning on an RBI single from Griffith, driving in Jimenez, the score held at 7-5 until the eighth inning. In the eighth, Augustana's Nate Soelter scored on a groundout to third by Pinnow, after leading the inning off with a double to pull the Vikings within one. With two outs, Augustana took the lead though off reliever Brock Steggall as Jake Lundquist hit a two RBI double to the wall in left-center, driving in Elkmeier and Berg, for an 8-7 lead.
In the bottom half of the inning, the Bearcats showed their late inning fight as Ventura crushed a ground-rule double to left-center with two outs to keep the inning alive. With Ventura at second base, Jimenez hit a hot shot to shortstop that Eikmeier bounced a throw to Pinnow at first base. Pinnow could not handle the throw allowing Jimenez to reach and Ventura to race home from second and tie the game again at 8-8, the game would end up going into extra innings.
Steggall walked the first two batters in the top of the 10th and was relieved by Landon Wells. Wells got Eikmeier to bounce out on a fielder's choice at third base, but in the very next at bat Lundquist came through again with a ground-rule double to center, scoring Elkmeier and Berg, to give Augustana a 10-8 lead with one out in the 10th. Diego De Santiago relieved Wells and got an out, but allowed a two-out, two-run single to right-center by Brandon Weigel, bringing home Lundquist and Carter McPeak, to give the Vikings a 12-8 lead.
In the bottom of the 10th Northwest did not give up until the final out. Cabuyaban reached on an error by Berg and Jimenez connected on a two-out, two-run homer to left field to slice the Augustana lead to 12-10. Sam Wornson delivered a pinch-hit single up the middle to bring Michael Good to the plate as the potential tying run, but Good was retired on a fly out to center for the game's final out.
Steggall was tagged with the loss to fall to 4-1 on the season pitching 1.1 innings and giving up one run on two hits, striking out one and walking two. At the plate, Griffith was 4-for-4 with an RBI and two runs scored, the first four hit game of his career. Jiminez was 3-for-5 with a home run and three RBIs.
Northwest will take on Arkansas Tech in an elimination game Friday at 3 p.m
You can follow Matt on X @KfeqMatt.