Bears earn big split with Texans Saturday, eye series win on Sunday

Saturday, May 1

Greeley, CO

Noon MT

University of Northern Colorado

10-25, 0

Tarleton State University

17-27, 0

Tarleton

Northern Colorado

5/1/2021 6:13:00 PM | Baseball

Box Score 1 Box Score 2

By: By Thomas Hoffman, UNCBears.com

GREELEY, Colo. – Northern Colorado is not messing around during this homestand. After dropping the first game of the doubleheader Saturday, the Bears stormed back to earn a huge win, 6-5, in an important stretch of WAC games.

GAME 1

Tarleton jumped out to an early lead in the first inning, capitalizing on a UNC error for two runs.

Once starter Sam Leach settled into the game, Northern Colorado looked to turn the tides in the bottom of the third inning.

Back-to-back bunt singles from Hayden Heinze and Shaydon Kubo produced one run before the hot bat of Garrett Fisher tied the game at two.

B3 | @shaykubo with the bunt RBI!! 😤

UNC - 1
TSU - 2#BearsStrong #WACbsb pic.twitter.com/CxzgwtWs41
— UNC Baseball (@UNC_BearsBSB) May 1, 2021

Three batters later, Ben McKay's two-run single helped the Bears leapfrog the Texans, 4-2.

B3 | 11 pitches for the at-bat and we have a 2 RBI single for Ben McKay!

UNC - 4
TSU - 2#BearsStrong #WACbsb pic.twitter.com/Htzw6j1Uhn
— UNC Baseball (@UNC_BearsBSB) May 1, 2021

The visitors wasted little time mounting a comeback, though. Five runs on five hits in the top of the fourth let Tarleton retake the lead, 7-4.

Adding insurance in both the sixth and seventh innings, Tarleton waltzed its way to a game one win, 11-4.

GAME 2

Taking advantage of a Shaydon Kubo leadoff single, Northern Colorado pushed across the opening run of the ballgame.

B1 | @SammyLeach6 with the ground out RBI!

UNC - 1
TSU - 0#BearsStrong #WACbsb pic.twitter.com/6nv1kf5xu9
— UNC Baseball (@UNC_BearsBSB) May 1, 2021

Two runs in each of the second and third innings gave the lead back to the Texans, leaving the Bears to claw from behind once more.

Northern Colorado was up for the fight, though, as Garrett Fisher flexed his muscles once more, securing a two-run double that scored Hayden Heinze and Aiden Leahy.

B3 | Garrett Fisher is on 🔥🔥!!

UNC - 3
TSU - 4#BearsStrong #WACbsb pic.twitter.com/IXjo8lXlid
— UNC Baseball (@UNC_BearsBSB) May 1, 2021

Among the many offensive weapons for the Bears, Heinze has been one hottest bats in the WAC, let alone the Bears' lineup. Including his five hits across two games on Saturday, Heinze has ballooned his batting average north of .400.

The Bears went back to work in the fourth, pushing across the tying run via aggressive base running from Johnny Graham and a Blake Tweedt single.

Though the Texans grabbed the lead briefly in the fifth, the speed of Johnny Graham and Blake Tweedt proved too much to handle as UNC took the lead, 6-5, for the first time since the bottom of the first inning.

B6 | The speed there!! Tweedt gives the Bears the lead!

UNC - 6
TSU - 5#BearsStrong #WACbsb pic.twitter.com/TTseFEwYIr
— UNC Baseball (@UNC_BearsBSB) May 1, 2021

In the seventh and eighth innings, freshman Dylan Day took the reigns. The Santa Rosa, California native pitched masterfully, holding Tarleton scoreless while striking out three in the process.

Day's performance set up Logan Chase for his third save opportunity of the season. Chase didn't mess around, popping out the first two batters he saw and striking out the last for the Bears' 11^th win of the season, 6-5.

T9 | STRIKEOUT!! What a save for @Logan343434!! 😤#BearsStrong #WACbsb pic.twitter.com/rYboVVDe5T
— UNC Baseball (@UNC_BearsBSB) May 1, 2021

Game Notes

Northern Colorado boasted back-to-back bunt singles from Hayden Heinze and Shaydon Kubo.
Garrett Fisher stayed hot, collecting his seventh double of the season.
Austin Bergdahl pitched another 0.2 scoreless innings with one strikeout.
Hayden Heinze's hot bat has him over .400 batting average for the season.
Garrett Fisher extended his hit streak to five games.
Dylan Day pitched two full scoreless innings with three strikeouts
Logan Chase recorded his third save of the season. Chase is 3-3 in save opportunities this season.

What's Ahead
The series is up for grabs as Northern Colorado and Tarleton will go at it one last time on Sunday. First pitch is set for 10 a.m. MT.

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