• Roster
• ▪
• Schedule / Results
• ▪
• News
• ▪
• Archives

Feb. 17, 2007

Box Score

PANTHERS DROP SATURDAY DOUBLEHEADER AT UALR

LITTLE ROCK, Ark. - The University of Northern Iowa baseball team dropped a pair of decisions to Arkansas-Little Rock, Saturday, falling 8-0 in the opener and taking a 6-5 extra-innings loss in the nightcap.

The Trojans repeated Friday's hot start with two runs in the opening frame. Brian Asbill and Brett Lawler brought the runs home with a pair of RBI singles. Sinclair pitched out of a bases-loaded situation in the UALR half of the second to keep the score at 2-0 through two innings.

That was as close as the Panthers would get in game one. A run in the third, another in the fifth and four runs in the sixth put UNI in an 8-0 hole heading into the ninth. The Panthers went down in order in the final frame to take the 8-0 loss.

UNI managed just two hits in the game, a single by Dane Embury (Kelowna, British Columbia/Kelowna) and a double by Jordan Kraayenbrink (Decorah, Iowa/Decorah).

Taylor Sinclair (Indianola, Iowa/Indianola) took the loss after a shaky five-inning start. The junior allowed seven hits while walking two and striking out four. The loss puts his record at 0-1 on the season.

Game two of Saturday's doubleheader looked an awful lot like Friday's opener, and ended with much the same result.

For the third straight game, UNI fell behind in the opening frame, allowing a run in the first to the Trojans to put the score at 1-0 after one.

Three Panther runs in the second gave UNI its first lead of the afternoon. Brett Featherston (Epworth, Iowa/Western Dubuque), Embury and Jaime Ballesteros (Huntington Park, Calif.), drove in the three runs on three straight at bats and gave the Panthers a 3-1 advantage through two.

UALR shaved the lead to one in the last of the fourth with a sacrifice-fly to right field. UNI plated a run in the following half-inning when Deric Manrique (Sioux City, Iowa/North) was hit by a pitch with the bases loaded. The run put the score at 4-2 through the UNI half of the fifth.

Two Trojan runs in the last of the fifth knotted the game at four, and another in the seventh gave UALR a 5-4 advantage through seven.

The Panthers roared back to life in the eighth after Brandon Douglas (St. Charles, Iowa/I-35) led off the inning with a double off the left field wall. Featherston scored him on an RBI groundout to even the score at five through eight.

UNI loaded the bases with two outs in the ninth, but failed to plate the go-ahead run and went into the bottom of the ninth with the score knotted at five. Chad Epperson (Tulsa, Okla.) pitched a perfect ninth to send it to extras.

Brett Lawler ended the game with one swing in the last of the 10^th. Lawler crushed a walk-off solo shot over the wall in right to give the Trojans the 6-5 win.

Epperson took the loss after retiring five straight. The senior's record is 0-1 on the season.

Embury led the offense for UNI, finishing 3-5 with a run scored. Five different Panthers drove in the five UNI runs.

UNI falls to 0-3 on the season. UALR improves to 5-1 overall.

The Panthers and Trojans wrap up their four-game set with a Sunday matchup at 1 p.m.