Jackets Stumble in Home Opener (3/17/06)
Game 1 Box Score
Game 2 Box Score
Game Photos

BILLINGS, MT – A ninth-inning meltdown cost the Montana State-Billings baseball team its home opener on Friday afternoon at Cobb Field.  The Yellowjackets gave up a four-run lead in the top of the ninth inning to drop the first game of the doubleheader, 10-8 to Northwest Nazarene.  The Crusaders cruised in the second game, winning 8-1.  NNU improved to 8-7 on the season while the Yellowjackets remained winless at 0-18.

“We need to make things happen instead of let things happen,” said Yellowjacket head coach Chris Brown.  “When we make things happen, more often than not it’s good.  Everybody kind of relaxed when we were ahead four runs and tried to let it happen, and it didn’t.  We’ve got to learn to flip that switch when something goes wrong and not let domino effect set in.  Things that happen in baseball are contagious.  When you get the ball rolling the right way it’s an easy game.  When you don’t, that’s what happens.  We acted like we’d just lost the game of our lives, and that carried over into second game.”

In game one, MSU Billings appeared poised for its first victory of the modern era when starter Nathan Herbig (Jr., Noxon, MT) took the four-run lead into the ninth inning.  Herbig, who had scattered seven hits and four runs over eight full innings of work, got the Crusaders’ Levi Shumway to groundout to shortstop to open the ninth inning.  Two outs away from the complete game victory, the wheels fell off for Herbig and the Yellowjackets.

Herbig hit the next two batters and walked the third to load the bases with one out.  Casey Miller (Jr., Miles City, MT) replaced Herbig on the mound and proceeded to walk one and allow two hits.  By the time Brandon Laffoon (So., Libby, MT) came on to relieve Miller, the Crusaders had put six runs on the board.  Three runs were credited to Herbig and another three to Miller, who failed to get an out.  As a sign of just how bad the inning was for the Yellowjackets, Laffoon’s first out—and just the second out of the inning—came when Shumway popped up to third base in his second at bat of the inning.  Miller (0-1) was credited with the loss.

With the wind clearly taken out of their sails, the Yellowjackets managed two base runners in the bottom half of the ninth but stranded both.  In the game MSU Billings pounded out season highs for runs and hits, but left 10 runners stranded on base.

The Jackets’ Kyle Pryor (Jr., Billings, MT) went 3-for-5 at the plate with a pair of runs.  Kyle Slater (Jr., Missoula, MT) was 3-for-3 with a run and an RBI.  Nick Hoskyn (Jr., Oelwein, IA), Willie Crtalic (Jr., Billings, MT), Luke Sansaver (Jr., Wolf Point, MT) and Jake Samuelson (Jr., Helena, MT) each had two hits.  Crtalic and Sansaver drove in two RBI apiece.  As a team the Yellowjackets had 15 hits.

The Crusaders’ Harold Shulz went 3-for-5 with two runs and an RBI.  CJ Severin and Eric Duke each had two hits and a pair of RBI.  Duke homered in the Crusaders’ three-run second inning.  Nick Patee was the beneficiary of the Crusaders’ comeback, picking up the win in relief.  He gave up six hits and three runs in 2 1/3 innings of work but still improved to 3-1.

The momentum from the first game carried over into the second for Northwest Nazarene.  The Crusaders posted three runs in the first inning and two more in the second to take a commanding 5-0 lead.  In each of the first two innings the Yellowjackets loaded the bases with just one out only to strand all six runners.  MSU Billings again left 10 runners on base.

Tyson Burkhart and Tyler Liebelt both homered for the Crusaders.  Schulz went 2-for-4 with three RBI.  Alex VanOeveren (2-1) pitched five innings, allowing two hits and one run for the win.  Jeff Bates closed out the final two innings.  VanOeveren and Bates held the Jackets to just three singles in the game.

Chris Martin (Jr., Billings, MT) took the loss for the Jackets to fall to 0-5.  He gave up eight hits and seven earned runs in 4 1/3 innings.  Kevin Roberts (Jr., Terry, MT) pitched the final 2 2/3 innings without allowing a hit.  Josh Wiley’s (Jr., Belgrade, MT) sacrifice fly in the bottom of the fourth inning scored Matt Kakalecik (Fr., Great Falls, MT) for the Jackets’ only run.

The Yellowjackets and Crusaders will meet again on Saturday in another doubleheader.  First pitch is scheduled for 11:00 a.m. at Cobb Field.