Sugai Paces @NCBearsBaseball in Loss to UND

Friday, March 27

Greeley, Colo.

3:00 pm

University of Northern Colorado

6-13, 3-1

North Dakota

6-13, 1-3

Team	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	Runs R	Hits H	Errors E
North Dakota	0	2	0	2	1	0	0	0	1	0	6	13	1
Northern Colorado	1	0	0	1	1	0	0	0	0	X	3	8	1

Photo by: Dean Popejoy

3/27/2015 7:02:00 PM | Baseball

Box Score

The Bears were unable to comeback from an early inning deficit to North Dakota

By: UNCBears.com

GREELEY — Reyn Sugai set the table for the UNC baseball team the entire day, but the Bears were not able to hit together and lost 6-3 to North Dakota Friday at Jackson Field.

Sugai went 4-for-5 at the dish, with four singles, and though he technically struck out in the ninth inning, he reached base anyway on a wild pitch.

Marco Castilla had two more hits, including the first triple of his career, but the remaining Bears managed just two other hits. North Dakota's Andrew Thome pitched a complete game and struck out 11 Bears while walking just two.

"This is our fourth year against Thome. I've seen him since he was a freshman, and he's a come-right-at-you pitcher," UNC head coach Carl Iwasaki said. "I think we gave him a good number of strikeouts just by chasing pitches out of the zone."

UNC (6-13, 3-1 WAC) took a 1-0 lead in the first after Sugai scored on an RBI single from Castillo. UNC's Dylan Shiraki, making his first start of the season, allowed two runs in the second and fourth innings before being relieved by Spencer Applebach.

The Bears got a run back in the bottom of the fourth after Castillo tripled down the right-field line and was brought home on a fielder's choice from Cole Maltese.

In the fifth inning, UND's Jeff Campbell hit a solo home run to right field off Applebach to make the lead 5-2. In the bottom half, Sugai singled and later scored on Brandon Vaughn's double to center field. The score would remain 5-3 until the ninth when UND (6-13, 1-3 WAC) tacked on an insurance run.

"Reyn had a great game offensively, as well as defensively as we saw him turn a double play in the first," Iwasaki said. "He's playing well. We just didn't hit together today. Tomorrow we got to come back and generate with runners on base."

Applebach pitched 4.2 innings and struck out seven batters, giving UNC's offense a chance to catch up in the middle innings.

"Apple secured us a chance. He kept us at two runs for a good while," Iwasaki said. "He had a good outing."

Northern Colorado will be back to face North Dakota at 2 p.m. Saturday at Jackson Field for the second game of this conference series.