UNC Drops Close Match to Omaha

Saturday, May 20

Greeley, Colo.

12 p.m.

University of Northern Colorado

11-34, 8-16

Omaha

21-26, 9-14

Omaha

Northern Colorado

Photo by: Liv Doro

5/20/2023 6:54:00 PM | Baseball

Box Score

GREELEY, Colo. -- In an afternoon battle, the Northern Colorado baseball team dropped a closely-fought contest to Omaha, 4-3, at Jackson Field on Saturday. The loss drops UNC to 8-16 in Summit League play, while Omaha moves to 9-14 and claimed the final spot in the 2023 Summit League Baseball Championship. In their first year in the Summit League, the Bears finished in fifth place, ahead of Western Illinois and St. Thomas.

Prior to the start of the contest, UNC honored the four seniors on the team that were making their final appearance at Jackson Field: Iain Isdale, Bryce Moore, Trey Cruz and Hayden Heinze.

Heinze got on base during his first plate appearance of the game, and Craig Kenny hit a double to center field to score Heinze from first. With two outs in the inning, Austin Bunn hit a double to right center to bring Kenny home. A batter later, Garrett Fisher singled to score Bunn for the 3-0 lead.

Unfortunately, the Mavericks would keep the Bears from any further scoring, including when the Bears left three stranded in the bottom of the eighth.

After UNC took the 3-0 lead, Omaha slowly started to warm up and chip away at the Bears' lead. The Mavericks scored an unearned run in the fourth, and a solo run in the sixth to make it a one-run game heading into the final three innings.

Omaha then scored two runs in the seventh to take 4-3 lead and eventual win.

Garrett Fisher went 3-for-4 on the day with one RBI. Kenny and Heinze both went 2-for-5 with one run score each, while Kenny added one RBI to his name.

With the loss, the UNC baseball season comes to a close. In the first year under head coach Mike Anderson, the Bears made marked improvements as the season progressed. UNC won three of its Summit League series (vs Omaha, May 18-20, at Western Illinois, April 21-23, vs South Dakota St., March 24-26). Jake King had the 10th best batting average in the conference at .314, and ninth best on-base percentage at .413. Murphy Gienger finished the season with 76 strikeouts, ranking third in the Summit. Heinze was fifth in the league with a .992 fielding percentage, committing only one error all season in 119 chances at center field. Additionally, The Bears won six of their last 15 games this season, compared to just three of the last 15 to end 2022.