OMAHA, Neb. - The Mavericks swept their doubleheader vs. Northern Colorado today with an 11-9 win in game one and a 14-10 win in game two.
With these two wins, Omaha is now 7-17 and picks up its first two Summit League wins to move to 2-6. As for the Bears, they drop to 8-17 with a 3-5 conference record.
Game 1
In one of the highest scoring games of the season at Tal Anderson Field, the Mavericks went back and forth right down to the wire. The Bears initially took a 4-0 lead in the top of the first. In the bottom of the inning, though, the Mavericks cut that lead to 4-3 thanks to a little help from the wind which caused several outfield miscues.
Kael Babin,
Henry Zipay, and
Tyler Bishop each got an extra-base hit to start the day, before
Mason Gaines was the fourth Maverick in a row to reach base with an RBI single.
Omaha would tie the game an inning later on a sac fly from
Sam Beck, before taking a 5-4 lead in the bottom of the third on an RBI single through the left side from Drew Boerner. An RBI single from
Jackson Trout in the fifth and another sac fly from Beck would make it five-straight innings with a run scored for Omaha as they carried a 7-5 lead into the sixth.
Following a scoreless seventh for both teams, UNC would pull ahead for the first time since the first inning after a two-out rally in the top of the ninth saw the Bears add three to take a 9-7 lead. Their lead was short lived, however, as a pair of sac flies from Trout and
Tyler Palmer tied it up at 9-9. Following a scoreless top of the ninth from
Luke Gainer, Omaha got some two-out magic of their own as Zipay was hit by a pitch to bring Bishop to the plate who promptly crushed a walk-off two-run home run to close out game one.
Game 2
The Mavericks wasted no time building a huge lead in game two as they batted around the order and put up a six spot in the bottom of the first. Omaha quickly loaded the bases with one out and got its first run after Trout was hit by a pitch. With two outs and the bases still loaded, Palmer, Borner, and Beck rattled off three-straight singles to bring in the next five runs.
Omaha's sharp two-out hitting continued in the second when
Cardel Dick lined a two-run single to center to make it 8-0. The Bears would get one run back in the top of the third, but the Mavericks came right back with five runs in the bottom half of the inning on RBI doubles from Bishop and Palmer and a sac fly from Gaines.
Despite trailing 13-1 through three, the Bears continued to play hard and managed to cut the lead to 13-8 after plating six in the top of the fourth and one in the fifth. Beck, with his third sac fly of the doubleheader, made it 14-8 in the sixth, only for UNC to get within four in the seventh by taking advantage of a couple Omaha defensive miscues.
Inside the Box Score
- Omaha had a season-high eight extra-base hits in game one, four of which came Zipay who went 4-for-4 with three doubles and a triple. He would reach base in all five at bats and score four runs.
- Across both games Omaha had 10 extra-base hits.
- The Mavericks set a Division I program record with four sac flies in game one.
- Game one saw a total of six ground-rule doubles between both teams.
- Omaha went 5-for-5 on stolen base attempts in game two and 7-for-7 on the day. The team's five steals in game two are its most in a single game since May 8, 2021 at North Dakota State.
Up Next
The Mavericks close out the series vs. Northern Colorado and the first half of their homestand tomorrow, now at 12:30 p.m. The game time was moved up from 4 p.m. to avoid the inclement weather later in the evening.
