TOPEKA, Kan. – Washburn baseball scored in the first inning and never trailed in the 12-6 series finale win over Northeastern State. The Ichabods will make a quick road trip to Northwest Missouri on Tuesday afternoon before returning home for a three-game home series against Missouri Southern next weekend.
For the second-straight game, Washburn (15-8, 8-1 MIAA) scored in the opening inning to take an early lead.
Trey Adams drew a walk and with two outs, moved up to second on a wild pitch.
Cale Savage brought in the run with a single to left field.
The Ichabods tacked on another run in the third inning. Savage led off the frame getting hit by a pitch, advanced on a wild pitch, and then moved up to third on a sacrifice bunt by
Trevor McCollum.
Andrew Schmidtlein got the run home with a sacrifice fly to make it a 2-0 game.
Northeastern State (10-10, 4-5 MIAA) got its first run of the afternoon in the fourth on a solo home run.
In the fifth inning, Washburn created some space and went up, 4-1.
Ike Book drew a leadoff walk and then scored on McCollum's double to left center, who advanced to third on the throw home. On the first pitch of his at bat, Schmidtlein hit another sacrifice fly to bring in the second run of the inning.
The Ichabod offense poured on five runs on five hits and an error in the sixth inning. Watkins got things started with a double to right center and moved over to third on a passed ball. Adams hit a single to center field to easily score Watkins. After moving up to second on a wild pitch, Adams traded places with Savage on his double down the left field line. Book kept things going with an RBI single to right field and McCollum drew a walk to put runners on first and second. Schmidtlein jumped on the new arm on the mound and landed an RBI single to left. A double steal moved both runners up one place and with two outs, a failed pickoff attempt error scored the last run of the inning to make it 9-1 in favor of Washburn.
The RiverHawks cut into the Washburn lead with three runs in the top of the seventh.
Washburn got those three runs back in the eighth inning. Book, McCollum, and Schmidtlein each had singles to begin the frame.
Caden Bressler collected an RBI on a bases loaded hit by pitch. Watkins drove in a run with a sac fly and Adams' single to center scored Schmidtlein to put the Ichabods up, 12-4.
Northeastern State added a pair of runs with two outs in the top of the ninth, but the game came to a close with flyout to left.
Washburn had 13 hits in the game and the RiverHawks finished with nine. Five Ichabods had a multi-hit game, led by Book's 3-3 day at the plate with two walks, three runs scored, and an RBI. McCollum went 2-3 and also scored three times with an RBI. Savage and Adams were both 2-4 with two runs scored and two runs driven in.
Jack Brimacombe earned the win on the mound, going 6 2/3 innings and allowing three runs, five hits, five walks, and striking out six.
