When senior Garrett Russini came to the plate in the fifth inning on Saturday with the Hatters clinging to a 3-2 lead over Northern Kentucky, he took a quick glance at Norse third baseman Brad Bohlen before stepping into the box.
With Josh Powers standing just 90 feet away, a two out in the inning, Russini took advantage of Bohlen's positioning, deep behind the bag, and dropped a perfect bunt down the line for an RBI single.
That turned out to be the winning run for the Hatters (21-19, 6-2 in the Atlantic Sun) in a 4-3 victory over NKU (11-23, 0-8).
“It wasn't a squeeze play, he was bunting for a hit,” Hatters coach Pete Dunn said of Russini. “As he was going to the plate I told him to give it a look, and he is pretty good and has a lot of confidence in his bunting. When I looked down there and saw him peek at the third baseman, who was way back, it was big. That was the key play of the game.”
The Hatters' three runs in the fifth inning off NKU starter Evan Korson (2-5) was enough for Stetson's Brooks Wilson (8-3) and relievers Josh Thorne and Tyler Warmoth, who held the Norse to just one unearned run the rest of the way.
The positive was that the Hatters earned their second straight win in the series. The negative was that Stetson committed four errors in the field and made four unnecessary outs on the bases that cost the team a chance to score more than the four runs they had.
“It is better to win ugly than lose ugly, and it was certainly ugly today,” Dunn said. “We can't put that one on the board as one of our better efforts. We kicked the ball around some and had some bad base running. Then they got the double-play ball when they needed it when we had a chance to pad the lead a little.”
Wilson bounced back after a subpar performance on the mound last week. The freshman worked six innings, allowing just two runs on seven hits with no walks and five strikeouts.
“Brooks gutted it up out there,” Dunn said. “He is going to be a lot better when he can consistently keep the ball down. His last two outings he has made some bad pitches up in the zone, and that is inexperience. He is a freshman, and we all kind of forget that. He does have to learn to stay down in the zone because today, that is when he got hurt. He had some hanging breaking balls.”
The Hatters gave Wilson a lead in the third inning when Cory Reid was hit by a pitch, stole second and scored on a double to left field that NKU's Quint Heady lost in the sun. That inning came to an end when Josh Powers singled to left and Heady came up throwing to nail Mazeika trying to score.
The Norse took the lead in the fourth inning thanks to three consecutive hits and a ground out. Cody Kuzniczci started things with a one-out double and then scored on a single by Trey Ganns. Logan Spurlin followed with a double down the left field line to give NKU runners at second and third. David Head followed with a ground ball to short, scoring Ganns on the fielder's choice.
Stetson answered with the three-run fifth. After a walk and a ground ball opened the inning, Vance Vizcaino delivered a single to left that was misplayed by Heady, allowing both Stetson base runners to move up. Mazeika followed with a sacrifice fly to right, tying the game. Powers followed with an RBI double to left to put Stetson in front before a wild pitch moved him to third, setting the stage for Russini's bunt.
“That put us up by two and it turned out to be the winning run,” Dunn said. “That was a big play on his part.”
The Norse took advantage of a throwing error in the eighth inning to cut the Stetson lead to 4-3. Trey Ganns followed the error with a double to center off Thorne to score the run. After Thorne got the next two hitters to ground out, Warmoth came on with the tying run at third base. He struck out Caleb Lonkard to end the threat.
“Tyler came in there with the game on the line and got us out of the eighth inning,” Dunn said. “He gave up the hit in the ninth, but then knuckled down to do what he had to do.”
The save for Warmoth was his sixth of the year. It was the 56th consecutive game the Hatters have won when leading after eight innings.
On the day for Stetson, Mazeika, Powers and Will Mackenzie had two hits each. Ganns, Spurlin and Head had two hits each to lead the Norse.
The Hatters will look to make it three in a row over the Norse on Sunday. The final game of the series is scheduled for 1 p.m. Sophomore Walker Sheller (2-5) will go to the mound for Stetson.
“I hate the word sweep because every time we talk about sweep we stink it up,” Dunn said. “We'll redefine it as trying to get the third win of the series. If Sheller can go out there and pitch like he did up in South Carolina, then I feel pretty good about our chances. I thought he and Russini worked well together in that game. We want him to settle into that starter role and be consistent.”
