Baseball starts most important series of the season with victory at Wright State - Northern Kentucky University Athletics (2024)

DAYTON, Ohio – The Northern Kentucky baseball program has officially got hot at the perfect time as the Norse collected an 8-5 victory in a crucial Horizon League contest at Nischwitz Stadium on Thursday evening.

With the win, Northern Kentucky picked up its 31stvictory of the season, a brand-new NCAA Division I era record that the squad has now set in back-to-back years.

The win also moved NKU to just a game back of first place in the Horizon. The Norse trail Wright State by just a single game with two contests left to go in the series.

To go with having a chance at the regular season conference crown for the first time in program history, the Norse are also looking to secure a first-round bye in the upcoming Horizon League Tournament with a second-place finish or better.

THE BASICS
FINAL:Northern Kentucky – 8, Wright State – 5 (9 innings)
LOCATION:Nischwitz Stadium– Dayton, Ohio
RECORDS:NKU 31-21(18-10 HL), WSU 30-21 (19-9 HL)

INSIDE THE BOX SCORE
- Treyvin Moss and Jake Paulick combined to lead the way for the Norse in the big victory.
- Moss went 2-for-5 overall with one home run, one triple, a game-best four RBI and one run scored.
- Paulick added a 1-for-4 outing with a homer, three RBI and two runs.
- Tyler Shaneyfelt added NKU's other RBI knock in the game as he went a near-perfect 3-for-4 with a triple, one RBI and a run scored.
- Cleary Simpson (1-for-4, one walk), John Odom (1-for-2, one base on balls), Logen Devenport (1-for-4) and Brennan Rowe each came around to score once for the Norse.
- Ryan Kilpatrick also notched a stolen base.
- Ben Gerl picked up the win on the mound with a strong 6.2 innings of work. He struck out seven batters and allowed just six hits and four earned runs. The showing was good for his fourth victory of the season.
- Nick McClanahan closed out the final 2.1 innings of the game. He posted two strikeouts and allowed three hits and a single earned run to seal the NKU victory.

HOW IT HAPPENED
- Wright State jumped out to an early 1-0 lead with a run in the bottom of the first.
- The Norse answered right back with six runs in the top of the sixth to make it a 6-1 contest.
- The NKU outburst came from two, three-run blasts off the bats of Paulick and Moss to give the Norse the large advantage.
- Northern Kentucky added another run in the top of the fifth off a RBI triple by Shaneyfelt to push its advantage to 7-1.
- The Raiders responded with a run of their own in the bottom half of the frame to make it 7-2.
- NKU added another run of insurance with a RBI triple by Moss to push the Norse lead to 8-2 in the top of the sixth.
- WSU tried to battle back with three runs in the bottom of the seventh, but by then the damage was already done as Northern Kentucky clinched the 8-5 victory.

?????????????? ???????? ??@NKUNorse | #NorseUp pic.twitter.com/XbFbq2V3Sb

— NKU Baseball ?? (@NKUNorseBSB) May 16, 2024

NEXT UP
The Norse and Raiders will get right back to it with game two of the series on Friday, May 17. Due to inclement weather set to hit the Daytonarea, the conference clash has been moved up to an 11 AM ET first pitch.


FOLLOW NKU NORSE BASEBALL
Get in the game and follow Northern Kentucky's NCAA Division I college baseball team through@NKUNorseBSB on X (Twitter),@NKUNorseBSB on Instagram,nkunorsebsb on Facebookandsubscribe to the NKU Norse Youtube channel.