NO. 19 NORTHEAST SPLITS BEHIND HUGE GILL HOMER

NORFOLK, Neb. – The No. 19 Northeast Community College baseball team returned home for the first time since Monday as they hosted Indian Hills Community College in a doubleheader at Norfolk Veterans Memorial Baseball Field in Norfolk Sunday. The Warriors took Game 1 by a final score of 13-3 before the Hawks rallied to take an 8-7 victory in Game 2.

Northeast (27-11, 11-5 ICCAC) got off to a slow start on what was an extremely windy afternoon as Indian Hills took a no-hitter into the fifth inning. Jackson Horn (Papillion, Neb.) got the Hawks on the board in the bottom of the fifth frame as he scored on a wild pitch, which was followed by a Grayson Headrick (Littleton, Colo.) triple that brought in another run. Northeast was able to push three runs across in the contest but the 18 hits by the Warriors proved to be too much as they triumphed in the showdown.

The Hawks and Indian Hills traded the lead multiple times in the second matchup of the day as the squads were tied up at seven heading into the bottom of the eighth inning. Taylor Gill (Orem, Utah) came to the dish and launched his sixth home run of the campaign over the right-field wall to give Northeast the advantage on the scoreboard. Gage Ingram (LaVista, Neb.) shut down the Warriors in the top of the ninth frame to give the Hawks a split of the two battles.  

STAT SHEET GAME 1:

Grayson Headrick (Littleton, Colo.): 1-3, 3B, RBI, R

STAT SHEET GAME 2:

Derek Woolwine (Boulder, Colo.): 4-4, HR, 2B, 2 RBI, R, BB

Taylor Gill (Orem, Utah): 1-4, HR, RBI, R

Gage Ingram (LaVista, Neb.): 2.1 IP, H, ER, 2 BB

HEAR FROM THE HAWKS COACH:

Head baseball coach Marcus Clapp on Taylor Gill's massive home run and how the day played out:

"He hunted a fastball and put a swing on it," Clapp said. "That's what we have been wanting him to do lately. Attack. Every one of our hitters. We talked this week about attacking fastballs. In Game 1, all we saw were fastballs and we got beat by fastballs. That can't happen. I felt like we came out and went through the motions. I felt like (Indian Hills) didn't get a ball out of the infield for the first three or four innings. That's baseball. You play bad one game and you have a chance to turn around and redeem yourself. I thought we battled much better in Game 2 and obviously we were able to come away with the win."

Clapp on the opportunity to take the series Monday:

"Like today, we have to attack," Clapp said. "We have to play clean baseball. We had way too many errors in the first game. It's going to be different conditions. Today was tough with the wind. If we throw strikes, get ahead, are aggressive at the plate and make plays, we are going to be alright."

UP NEXT:

The Hawks will be back home to wrap their series with Indian Hills Community College at 1 p.m. tomorrow at Norfolk Veterans Memorial Baseball Field in Norfolk.

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