Baseball Victorious in Home Opener

Friday, March 6

Greeley, CO

2 PM

University of Northern Colorado

3-9

North Dakota State

6-8

North Dakota State

Northern Colorado

3/6/2020 5:12:00 PM | Baseball

Box Score

By: by Dylan Morey, UNCBears.com

GREELEY, Colo. – The Bears finally got to enjoy a home series, the first of their 2020 season, this weekend against the North Dakota State Bison. With the weather in the high 60's, you couldn't have asked for a better environment for the first home game of the season. UNC was able to use these favorable home conditions to take the 4-2 win over North Dakota State in the 2020 UNC Home Opener.

Issac Bracken opened up on the mound for the Bears, going three up and three down on the first inning. Bracken would go for seven innings, racking up six strikeouts and allowing just one hit and one earned run.

Jake Gitter hit a triple to center field in the bottom of the first inning to put himself in scoring position and Sam Leach was able to bring in Gitter as the Bears jumped out to the early 1-0 lead.

Jake Gitter increased the lead in the bottom of the third by hitting a two RBI homer to bring in Hayden Heinze and make it 3-1 for the Bears.

Hayden Heinze hit his first bomb this season with his solo home run to right field in the bottom of the fifth inning to put the Bears up by three runs heading into the sixth. The Bison would pick up a run in the top of the seventh to narrow the Bears lead to 4-2.

After scoreless eighth inning, Andrew Willmon would come into the game in the ninth inning with the task of putting away the Bison, and he would do just that. Willmon would retire the batters and finish off the 4-2 win for UNC.

"The player of the game first and foremost is Issac Bracken. . .we supported him today with some run totals and obviously we got the win there. Offensively, player of the game has to be Gitter, he had all the action today for us, but a complete team win and we will take it."

While Coach Iwasaki praised both Bracken and Gitter, he realizes it needs to be a whole team effort moving forward.

"We are going to need to do it all together, we need one through nine in the order to get on. We need everyone on base to create bigger innings. . .we are going to come back tomorrow and get that right."

The Bears and the Bison will be back at Jackson Field tomorrow at noon for the first game of the Saturday double-header.

Highlights

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wMTXqpb-4P0&t=42s

To stay up to date on all things UNC Baseball, visit UNCBears.com and follow the team on Facebook and Twitter @UNC_BearsBSB.