Northwest baseball knocks out Southwest Baptist

The Northwest Missouri State University baseball team picked up a 6-4 victory over Southwest Baptist on Friday in the second round of the MIAA Tournament at Missouri Southern State University.

Northwest improves to 32-19 overall while Southwest Baptist ends its season with a 30-21 record.

Northwest scored five runs in the third and one in the fifth. Southwest Baptist scored twice in the first, once in the third and once in the eighth. Northwest had six runs on 10 hits. SBU had four runs on 11 hits. Neither team had an error.

Alixon Herrera was 2-for-4 with an RBI and a run scored Garrett Fort went 2-for-5 with a run scored Ozzie Adams was 1-for-3 with an RBI, a run scored and a walk. Jay Hrdlicka was 1-for-2 with an RBI double. He also walked twice. Kevin Handzlik went 1-for-2 with an RBI, a run scored, a walk and a sacrifice bunt.

Kolby Greenslade was 1-for-4 with an RBI and a run scored. Joseph Hietpas went 5 2/3 innings for the win, allowing three runs on five hits. He struck out four and walked four. Jacob Wagner got the last out of the sixth inning after entering the game with two outs and the bases loaded. He got a groundout to second against the only batter he faced Eddy Kraber worked 2.0 innings of relief, allowing one run on three hits.

Nikko Pablo picked up his 11th save of the year, working a flawless ninth inning to close out the victory.